


The Diverging Way

by TwistedImage



Series: The Corrected Path [3]
Category: Buffy the Vampire Slayer
Genre: Blood Drinking, Explicit Language, Gore, Graphic Description, Implied/Referenced Torture, M/M, Magic, Mates, Romance, Sexual Content, Soul Bond, Threesome - M/M/M, minor Angel/Xander/Spike
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-06-19
Updated: 2016-06-19
Packaged: 2018-07-15 23:41:23
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 67,740
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7243531
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TwistedImage/pseuds/TwistedImage
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Their bond strengthens as they face new dangers. An intelligent foe comes to light that may be more then they can handle. </p>
<p>New friendships, old enemies, strengthening powers, assassination attempts, prom, and graduation; all things they must face.</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Diverging Way

**Author's Note:**

> *Buffy and it's characters aren't mine but I do like to play with them. 
> 
> *Do not copy and paste this work elsewhere with permission from me. 
> 
> *Notes at the end, check first couple comments as they will be notes about next story.

Xander opens the door and greets Giles before the man can use the large iron knocker. “Hey, G-man. Good summer?” The man had called the mansion when he had gotten back from a summer in England and told them he had urgent news.

The older man signs before answering. “It was fine but I do have some rather disturbing news and I have told you not to call me that dreadful name.”

Xander smirks at the man before leading him into their most used sitting room, the last light of the day is fading from the sky and easily seen through the large bank of windows. Angel comes into the room with a tray of supplies for tea and some shortbread cookies that Zia had made earlier that day.

Giles greets Angel and begins making a cup of tea, looking pleased that it is what the British man calls ‘true tea’ and not the American _swill_ most often served. The watcher asks a few questions about the demonic activity over the summer and the master vampire reassures him that they had written down any activity so it could be added to his journals for the Watcher’s Council.

They report that the vampire activity over the summer was pretty much nonexistent, between it being the summer, them patrolling regularly, and Angel killing any vampire that turned someone without his permission. That a few of the more aggressive demons had even moved out of Sunnydale after Angel made an _example_ of what would happen to them if they went against his laws. Giles doesn’t ask for specifics of what the master vampire did to scare these demons off.

Xander tells him that many of the half-demons and less aggressive species are banding together and helping keep an eye on the town and any suspicious activity. That Angel and Xander’s protection and inclusion of them, instead of ostracizing them, has rallied them to support Angel’s court and gained them loyalty among many of them. Xander doesn’t mention that he has played poker a few times at Willy’s and has made a couple demon friends. He still has a hard time trading kittens and knowing some will be eaten but does his best to ignore it. Any kittens he wins are usually found homes with Zia’s help.

Angel tells Giles about the demon restaurant that is going to be opened and they reassure him that it will be protected by a non-violence spell. This leads Xander to showing the librarian his notes on possible spells that could be used to create a similar effect. He tells him about both the restaurant and bar they visited while they were out of town. That the bar owner contracted the Furies, which could be an option but Xander wants his own spell so it can be used on all of their homes and any other dwelling they desire. That the spell the demons who own the restaurant use is a family secret and they are unwilling to share it, which Xander can understand.

The older man is obviously impressed with the research Xander did, which makes the teenager preen a little, and asks to take the notebook full of notes home, so he can read over it all more thoroughly. Xander quickly agrees because he really wants either Giles to agree that the ideas he has are correct or help to fine tune them.

The last bits of news they have for Giles are that Xander finally achieved a second form and that he has been practicing with it often. When Giles requests a demonstration, Xander strips right there and changes, ignoring the man’s spluttering. He was only naked for seconds and by the time he had taken all his clothes off, he already had soft fur covering most of his bare skin. The change is swift but still painful as bones shift and change, though due to Xander’s innate magic not as painful as it could be.

Xander shakes his body swiftly before looking around the room from his new perspective; taking in the sights, smells, and sounds that are so different in this form. He walks up to the surprised man and gives him a slight nudge with his nose and after a few moments is rewarded with a scratch behind one of his ears. Xander can hear Angel and Giles talking but it isn’t as easy to follow their meaning when he is changed and he always has to focus more to be able to understand them.

He is distracted by the arrival of Ace, who had been lazing in front of one of the windows, and is pounced on by the not so small young cat. Xander flops to his side and lets the cat climb on top of him and knead his side with sharp claws that are only minor annoyances in this form. Xander is pulled back to the conversation when Angel tugs his ear and makes it clear he wants him to change back. Ace lets out a hiss of displeasure when Xander gets up, knocking her from her perch. Xander changes back and quickly puts on his clothes, allowing the fur to completely recede when he is fully dressed.

Giles asks him a few questions but it’s obvious Angel had already answered most of them while he was changed. Angel sends him to the kitchen to get something to eat, as the change, especially doing it so quickly, takes a lot of energy and he always needs lots of calories after. As he is leaving Angel starts telling Giles about Spike calling them.

The vampire had called them not long after the start of the summer. Apparently, Drusilla came out of whatever was happening to her or was no longer possessed. She had since been ranting about a first tricking her and giving her false visions. The female vampire was upset that she had been used to hurt her Daddy _and_ was mad at Spike for trying to stop her. Xander couldn’t understand the ‘mad seer’, probably because she _was_ mad and more then a little insane. Spike had also complained about Xander hitting Drusilla too hard and snapping her spine, partially paralyzing her. Between healing that and losing whatever energy the possession had given her, she was weak and bedridden but the blond wasn’t willing to come back to Sunnydale for Sire’s blood. Angel had sent a few vials of both his and Xander’s blood with a demon messenger that would shorten her healing time.

After making a thick sandwich he goes back to Angel and Giles, entering as the watcher is talking about what he had found over the summer.

“I believe, and from what you’ve added about what Spike has said, that the First that we are talking about is the First Evil. If we are truly facing something of this magnitude, I am unsure of what we will be able to do.” Xander sees the shock cross Angel’s face at the mention of this First Evil and he is able to hear the capitalization of the words.

“Who or what is the First Evil, for those in the room who don’t know? It’s an uber baddy right?” Xander asks as he sits on the couch next to his mate.

“Yes, as you have so simplified it, the First Evil is an uber baddy. The worst, it is literally evil incarnate. It represents all the evil in existence and can assume the form of any person who has died, including vampires and people who have been resurrected. Though while it can assume these forms it is non-corporeal and is unable to do physical damage but it is more then capable of using psychological manipulation. The First Evil has servants that it can act through, like the Bringers-who are corrupted humans. They are the First Evils acolytes, it’s priests, and foot soldiers. This is unlike anything we have faced.” Giles finishes with a grim look.

Xander has nothing to say to that and the three of them sit in a tense silence for a few minutes.

“Why is it appearing now? What does it want?” Xander finally asks, once he is no longer able to take the silence.

“I do not know, other then to reap more evil and corrupt innocents. It’s influence will be the strongest here at the Hellmouth. I could find no prophesies that speak of its return anytime soon but it could be just preparing for something that wont happen for a decade or more.” Giles answers before pulling his glasses off and rubbing at his temples. There isn’t much said after that.

It isn’t much later that Giles decides to leave. “I will see you in a couple days for school and you are welcome to come by the library before then to discuss your research.” Giles tells Xander before he walks out of the front door.

It isn’t till the man is pulling out of the drive way that Xander remembers he wanted to show Giles the room Angel had helped him set up for magic use. The small room was off the library and probably meant to be an office but Angel had set his office up in a room that may have been meant for a formal sitting room off the large foyer.

The atmosphere in the house is a little somber, so Xander asks Angel to spar with him to help work out the tension that was left by the news of such a immense foe. Xander has plans for a very long life with his mate and will not let an enemy, even the First, take that away from him. They will face this, like they’ve faced any other challenge and if they do die, they will do so fighting side by side.

\----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Later that same night, Xander loses himself in his mate. Focuses only on Angel’s touch and scent, allows nothing from the outside world to intrude on them here in the sanctuary of their room and bed.

Angel had lit candles that are scented like jasmine, the soft scent meant to calm, when they had entered the room and the light smell was floating around the room as they lay entwined together on the bed.

When they had finally reached completion, Xander’s orgasm was splattered across both of their stomach’s and Angel’s kept inside of him by the still mostly hard cock. The vampire was licking the sweat and few remaining drops of blood from Xander’s neck, as the younger man panted softly. They shared a few soft kisses, that were hardly more then a slide of lips with the occasional flick of a tongue.

Xander had no intention to fall asleep so soon and had plans for a second round but within one breath and the next, he was asleep. His dreams were troubled and caused him to toss and turn.

A dark, shrouded figure kept trying to creep closer but was continuously chased back by a massive, snarling hyena that pulsed with green and brown magic. The darkness had an almost slimy look to it that made Xander’s skin crawl and the only thing that made him stand strong in the face of this enemy was the hyena at his side and the determination not to lose ground to something so evil. Slowly the figure took shape and Xander was staring into the eyes of his lost friend, Jesse. Who began to blame him for the teenager’s death and even though Xander knew that this wasn’t truly his friend, the words still cut deeply.

Xander woke with a gasp and sat up quickly, waking the vampire who was wrapped around him.

“What’s the matter?” The sleepy words are asked as he is pulled back down to the bed, a hint of gold in his mate’s eyes belying the calm tone.

Xander tells his mate about his dream, the fading memory of the feeling the darkness gave him still making his skin crawl. Angel reassures him against the hurtful words that had come from the false Jesse’s mouth, reinforcing that is wasn’t his fault that his friend was dead. That the boy would have been grateful his body wouldn’t have been used to harbor a demon and kill others.

Angel tightens his arms around the younger man and whispers a lilting Irish lullaby, after telling Xander to try to go back to sleep. This time his sleep is peaceful as he runs across the grasslands of Africa, under the full moon, with his mate next to him. A solitary drum beat matching the pounding of his heart, as they eat up the vast stretches of open space with an inhuman speed. The call of hyenas in the distance.

\----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Xander walks into the library the night before school starts with Angel, carrying a tote bag of food that Zia cooked. The demon had cooked some spicy Indian dish that had made the house smell amazing and the teen couldn’t wait to tear into it. Xander sets the bag down on an empty table as he calls out a greeting to Giles, who is in his office, before he begins to pull out the separate containers of food. There is a fragrant rice, a rich sauce with spicy meat, along with naan bread and chunks of homemade paneer. Xander doesn’t miss the pleased look Giles gives the food as he comes out and joins them.

They both discuss Xander’s research and notes, along with the likely hood the slightly tweaked spells would work. Giles asks more about the no-ill-will/intent and no-violence spells they came across this summer and the mated pair tell him all they know about them. Thankfully, the older man seems to agree that the spells that Xander found would most likely do what he wished them too. The primal enhanced teenager had worried they wouldn’t work, even when a part of him (the one that swirled with ancient primal magic) pushed for the slight changes he had done to the foundation spells he had found. The only problem would be the strength of the spell and not making it too restrictive on certain places, like their home. They would still want to be able to spar and such but wouldn’t want those who wished them harm to be able to enter the mansion.

The watcher was interested in the old grimoires that Angel had acquired for Xander and the teen agreed to bring a few of them the next day as long as the man answered some questions he had about some of the spells and rituals that were written down in the books. The books on magic and actual grimoires from past practitioners held a wide range of magics, from white magics to some of the darker magics.

Angel had even found some more comprehensive magic primer books that were extremely informative about a broad base of magic types and the building blocks of spells and potions. Giles figured they would be great for Willow and Amy to read when Xander was finished with them, as they were a wealth of information.

Xander was interested in it all but had no intentions to step his toes into the darker aspects of the craft or at least not anytime soon. Some of the spells that were considered dark, looked very useful but required some kind of sacrifice and that was usually blood or death. Xander knew blood magic was very strong and he wasn’t at the point were he was willing to shed his own blood, even if only a few drops, or sacrifice something, even if it was only a chicken. He didn’t have the control yet to be able to handle that kind of magic.

The vampire had also had a thick brown leather grimoire made for Xander’s 18th birthday, an ink and quill set that he was going to teach the teen to use, a variety of supplies that would be oft used in spell casting, and a beautiful wooden chest they were all stored in. The blank spell book had double metal hinges and locks, the front had a circular piece of metal that was stamped with the image of a hyena laying under a native African tree, the marula. The pages were a heavy parchment that was slightly colored. Xander had fallen in love with the book as soon as he had opened the chest and couldn’t wait to learn to use a quill before he could write in it.

Even though he had gotten so much new material for magic, he had still only practiced the spells Giles had already showed him and the others in the books Giles had told him to work with over the summer. Xander was very aware that using magic took a great deal of responsibility and he didn’t wish to mess up, just because he wanted to work ahead or show off. He also knew magic couldn’t just be mixed together like a chemistry set, that trying to make the smallest changes could have deadly and unforeseen consequences and was the main reason he hadn’t even tested any of the new spells without speaking to Giles. Along with Angel, who had helped teach him this summer and had given repeated warnings about not abusing magic.

The few times he had invited Willow over to hang out, over the summer, he had tried to discuss what they had already learned and about a few theories Giles had them reading about but she had mostly changed the subject and been unwilling to talk about it. Xander had hoped to discuss magic with another beginner and Willow was the only one he knew that was available. Amy had been out of town for the entire summer and had only been in contact with Willow.

Giles, Xander, and Angel debated back and forth about either spells ability to work in the library or possible using an uninviting ritual, that the watcher had found, on the entire school. Giles believed that either spell could become twisted, from the Hellmouth energy, if it was used for long-term in the library.

Angel suggested that the library be cleansed regularly and the spell redone every so often, even if it would be a hassle. The vampire, also, mentioned that any vampire could enter the school because of the motto on the front that invited any who sought knowledge to enter.

Xander argued that they could do the uninviting ritual if they changed a few of the letters on the motto around so it no longer translated correctly, though it would only stop vampires from entering and not other demons. That a mild no-ill-will spell could be added to the entire school but it would take a lot of power, if what he had read about those types of spells were true. It would stop anything or one that meant true harm to the school or it’s occupants from coming onto the grounds but it wouldn’t make the more harmless high school rivalries disappear completely.

However, if Giles was right about spells possibly being corrupted by the energies given off by the Hellmouth then they would have to redo it regularly and that would make it less feasible because of the power it would take to fuel a spell of that type for an area that large.

It was late before they all decided to head home. Xander and Giles both needed to be up early for school the next day. Xander had been getting back on a more diurnal schedule the last week in preparation for heading back to school but it was still entirely too hard to wake up so early in the morning.

\----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

At school the next day, Xander tries to appear slightly concerned that Buffy hadn’t shown up while Willow fretted but he was mostly relieved he didn’t have to be around the slayer. Oz looked equally unconcerned but he rarely looked anything other then zen but he was humoring his girlfriend. Willow suggested that Giles should go speak with Buffy’s mother, after school, and see if she was still with her father.

Xander still wasn’t sure how he was supposed to be around the girl without growling at her because just thinking about the slayer made his figurative hackles raise. Whether Buffy truly thought Angel had to actually be shoved through the portal or not, the girl had almost sent his mate to a hell dimension. Xander wasn’t even close to forgiving her and possibly never would completely.

He still had nightmares about being too late and watching his mate falling into the portal and suffering an untold amount of time in some hell dimension. It had made him wonder if he would have died as soon as Angel had crossed the portal or continued to live without his mate because the vampire would have been technically alive just in another dimension. Xander was entirely sure that if he had survived his mate, he would have found a way to ensure he didn’t for long; not if he couldn’t find a way to bring his mate back.

He knew she was the slayer and it was her duty to kill vampires and other demons but it had been a major leap to go from acting like Xander had stolen her one true love to trying to shove a sword in Angel and sending him to a hell dimension.

\----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Giles reports later that evening before Xander leaves to meet up with Angel and patrol, that Buffy would be back in a few days. Ms. Summer’s hadn’t exactly wanted her to come back to Sunnydale and had wanted to move away from here but Buffy had stopped her. Reminding her mother that vampires and other demons were everywhere and what had made her burn her previous high school down.

Then they were having trouble with Snyder accepting Buffy back, the snide little man refusing to allow her back because of her supposed actions before the summer, even if she was cleared of killing Kendra. Ms. Summers was going to have to get the school board involved before Snyder would allow her daughter to come back to school.

Xander gave a quiet sigh of relief that he had a few more Buffy free days, while Willow offered to make sure Buffy had class notes and homework assignments so she wouldn’t fall behind. The dark haired male rolled his eyes because it was hardly like the blond girl would actually use the stuff Willow would give her, unless Willow did the actual assignments for her.

He leaves the library shortly after to meet Angel so they can make a pass through a few of the cemeteries that have recent burials, although only one is a death by ‘barbeque fork’.

They spend close to an hour patrolling, which mostly means walking through a cemetery holding hands and stopping for occasional kisses, and only come across the one new vampire. It’s dusted before it is even fully out of it’s grave, neither in the mood to play around.

\----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

The arrival of Buffy is followed shortly by zombies, although it was her mother’s god awful looking mask’s fault. The group had gathered at Buffy’s house to welcome her back and Xander still isn’t sure why there was a welcome back party for Buffy, she had just been away for the summer with her dad. Xander hadn’t had to put his foot down on not letting Angel within 100 feet of the slayer, since the master vampire had some meeting with a group of demons and was unable to come. He had barely spoken more then a distracted word to her and had been talking to Cordelia most of the evening before the zombies crashed the unnecessary gathering.

Xander continued to mostly ignore Buffy the next few days, other then responding to a direct question, and didn’t bother to restart sparring with her. Maybe he was holding a grudge but he felt it was deserved. What really bothered him? Buffy hadn’t made a single attempt to apologize to Angel for what she had every intention to do. She was going to send Angel, who she supposedly _loved_ and was her friend’s mate, to hell and seemed to have little remorse.

If the girl had used her brain for even a second, she would have realized that sending Angel into the portal was entirely unnecessary. The blond wasn’t exactly a brain trust but neither was Xander, even if he was doing better in school because he could concentrate easier now, and if he could figure it out then so could she. Hell, if she had bothered to actually listen to Whistler completely and not run off because she didn’t like what the demon had said. Xander knew Buffy was the slayer and taking out demons was her calling but he still couldn’t let it go.

Xander knew his behavior was creating tension among their small group and Willow tried to be understanding, at the same time as trying to bridge the gap between the two. Oz was doing an admiral job of keeping out of the middle of all of it, while Cordelia was full of cutting comments. Cordy seemed to believe that anyone who could kill someone as good looking as Angel wasn’t worth her time unless it was to insult them. Giles could understand why Xander was being just short of hostile but his main priority was his slayer.

So this ended up with Xander spending more time with Cordy then the others, at least when Buffy was around. Although, this was only possible because Cordelia had deemed him ‘cool’ enough because he was now gay, dressed better, and had an older boyfriend. Though he absolutely refused spending any time with Cordelia’s so called ‘friends’ and she seemed relieved to get a break from them. So the pair ended up going for coffee on occasion and Xander being drug shopping; often used as a bag carrier.

He still hadn’t figured out how she could spend so much time with Harmony and not cut the girls tongue out, just to make her stop spilling such idiocy from her mouth. Xander had at one time thought himself fairly close to dumb but the girl made him feel like a genius…huh, maybe that was why Cordy keep the girl around. It was so easy to pick on Harmony and maybe he should feel bad but she made it so tempting because there wasn’t a single thing redeemable about her.

\----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

When Giles told Xander, Willow, and Amy they would start their weekly lessons in magic again, Xander was excited because he couldn’t wait to talk to the other two about the ideas he had researched over the summer and how he hoped to soon cast the actual spells. If they worked, he wanted to teach both of them so they could help cast the spells on all their houses. Also, he had just recently started trying to learn Swahili and was curious if he could do spells in that language; as it seemed much more natural then Latin to him, it rolled off his tongue with such ease while he was still fumbling with Latin.

The watcher had even asked if they would allow Ms. Calendar to come to their following weekly sessions and while Xander wasn’t a big fan of the gypsy woman, he wouldn’t mind another teacher well-versed in magic. The two had seemed to be talking again and possibly thinking about dating. Giles had reacted stronger then Xander had expected when they found out about the woman being a gypsy and a spy for her clan, but he imagined it was mostly because he knew the havoc unleashing Angel’s demon completely would have caused.

Before they actually started casting they spoke of what they had read and practiced over the summer and if they had any question. Giles seemed taken aback when neither girl had any serious questions and seemed to have little, if any, written notes or research, which was completely unlike Willow.

Maybe, this was just a case of Xander being over prepared but he was very interested in the magic they were learning and he didn’t want to make a mistake that could hurt or even kill someone. He had a couple small notebooks at least half-full of notes and questions about different subjects. Not to mention the main one that had notes about the spells he had tried, notes on ones he wished to try, and the no-violence notes.

Xander told them about the room he had just for spell casting and the chest of supplies his mate had gotten him for his 18th. He mentioned some of the research he had done and listened to the other girls talk about what they had tried. Xander was able to smell lies on both of them but Giles had already talked to Willow about trying spells over the summer that she shouldn’t have been touching, at least not yet, and had almost yelled at her for the careless way she had thrown different spells together. His friend had looked to him for back-up but Xander couldn’t give it, especially, when he completely agreed with Giles and now she hadn’t spoken to him much the last couple days.

Amy hadn’t been coming to the library since school had started back and they had only a couple classes together but she never sat with him or Willow. When Giles had them cast a few spells that he had wished for them to learn and master over the summer that would help them with control, Xander knew something was wrong.

They had been working on manipulating elements on a small scale and learning precision but Amy’s magic felt, smelled, and even tasted… _wrong and tainted_. It had always had a darker twist then Willow’s or his but had never made his own magic want to lash out. Now it was making him physically recoil and his own magic flared without his control, the pinpoint flame shooting up and out, and vaporized the floating circle of water Amy had been manipulating.

“What?!” Three voices rang out in alarm, as they all jerked back.

“Xander, what happened?” Giles was looking between him and Amy, obviously having noticed his reaction was due to her magic.

“I don’t know but Amy’s magic feels really wrong. Like something has happened to it. It’s always had a darker feel then mine or Willow’s but now something is really wrong with it.” Xander’s words rushed out and he felt no shame in ratting out the other girl because either something had actually messed with her magic or she had done magics she should never have touched.

Giles was looking at the girl with an expression that reminded Xander of ‘Ripper’, something he had seen less then a handful of times. Amy looked like she was close to fleeing the room and was stuttering out denials and excuses.

“Willow and Xander, please leave. I need to speak with Amy in private.” The two teens didn’t waste time gathering their stuff and leaving, as the quiet voice was much more frightening then yelling.

When they had made it out of the school and Willow accepted a ride home from Xander, Willow finally spoke. “Why did you act like that? What was the matter?”

“Willow, I don’t know how you couldn’t have at least sensed something was wrong and maybe it’s just the primal but her magic was really tainted. Something was not of the good, very hinky. That means she is either messing with something she shouldn’t or that something is actually twisting her magic. Giles needed to know and honestly, the reaction was just reflex to the feel of her magic.” Xander decided to continue and say something he had been wanting to the last couple days to Willow. “The rules and precautions we take are vital and shortcuts are dangerous. A simple mispronunciation or mixing of ingredients can change a spell completely and possibly even open you up to something unpleasant. We live on the Hellmouth, Willow. We _need_ to take extra precautions. Hell, I cleanse my circle after ever session or even spell depending on what I’m practicing.”

Xander hoped Willow would take some of this to heart because he knew she was playing with stuff that she shouldn’t and he had been thinking about telling Giles that she was still lying, even if it felt like he was betraying her. Working ahead just because she thought she could and using magic for things she shouldn’t, something as simple as changing her hair or clothes. Those kind of careless and casual uses of magic could lead to her becoming addicted and were entirely unnecessary.

They were both quiet for the rest of the ride to Willow’s house. Xander hoped Willow was thinking about what he had said and was taking it seriously.

\----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Xander had Angel plastered to his back as the song played, their hips swayed together and his mate left lingering kisses to the bared column of his neck. The tight dark grey tee that he wore was stuck to his back with sweat, as they had been dancing since they had arrived at the club. One of Angel’s hands were gripping his hip and the other was splayed under his shirt, across his lower stomach. A pinkie finger occasionally dipping below the waistline, teasing him, and guaranteeing they wouldn’t be staying much longer.

They were at the Bronze because Willow had demanded they all come for a night and hang out. This was after they had all, minus Angel, had lunch together right off campus because they were seniors. Xander wished his house was closer so he had time to go home for lunch but at least Zia usually packed him something.

He was distracted for a second by movement out of the corner of his eye and when he looked, his eyes widened in surprise. The sudden tension behind him showed that Angel sensed the same thing as him. A beautiful, brunette haired girl with dark red lipstick was dancing with a guy who looked like his clothes were at least two decades out of date. Even from half-way across the dance floor, Xander was able to sense that she was a slayer and then they watched as she lead the guy she was dancing with, an obvious vampire, away.

Xander followed behind and saw that Buffy had sensed something as well. Angel stayed back because slayers tended to have a stake first mentality and even one as new as this one could get a lucky stab in. They found her pressed against the wall before she threw the vampire away and introduced herself as Faith. Xander had passed a stake to Buffy, who was obviously without one, and it was snatched by the new slayer before she quickly took care of the vampire.

The new slayer, Faith, passed them on the way back into the club. “Thanks B, couldn’t have done it without you.” They all ended up following behind the new girl and gathered in a corner to talk.

Xander and Angel sat the furthest away and both listened to her stories of slaying. The master vampire chuckled when Faith mentioned always being hungry and horny after slaying. Xander had to agree, the violence and adrenaline of slaying always made him crave Angel’s touch; it had lead to some frottage against a crypt, more then once.

They could both sense that she was much more in tune with her slayer side then Buffy was, even though the blond had been at it much longer. Buffy was as different from Faith as she had been from Kendra but in an entirely different way. Kendra had been all about the rules where Faith looked like she took delight in breaking them all and had a pronounced sense of being a predator, that she didn’t bother hiding; a wolf among sheep .

It wasn’t till she mentioned her watcher after being asked why she was in Sunnydale that her heart, truly, skipped a beat and her scent told a different story then her words. Xander made a note to mention it to Giles the next day.

It wasn’t much later after that, that the mated pair decided to leave. As neither wanted to really gain the new slayer’s attention since neither happened to be truly human. As cool as she seemed with a werewolf, Xander didn’t think she would be as cool with him especially since he was mated to a vampire. No one else mentioned them either.

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Faith was in the library the next day, after school, and was introduced to Giles. She made a few comments that made Xander grimace because he absolutely refused to see Giles in any sexual context; the man may look good for his age but it was like thinking of a parent that way. When the watcher showed a newspaper article about two recent deaths, Xander figured now was a good as time as any for the news he had for Giles and as it seemed Faith wasn’t in a hurry to leave, he would have to tell him in front of her.

“So, G-man. Angel said that there was something going down and there has been an up tick in activity, the past few days. That a couple new vampire’s showed up in town but they are keeping a fairly low profile and that one of them is pretty old. One of his contacts said that they were hunting a slayer. Not sure why any vampire would go after two slayers but maybe they are after Buffy and don’t know that Faith is here.” The teen explained to Giles, relaying what his mate had told him.

“Does Angel have any names?” The man queries distractedly while searching along a shelf for some book.

“None so far but if he gets any, then I’ll be sure to tell you. There’s been some unease in the community and Angel thinks that something big might be coming or happening. I don’t know if it’s linked to the First, though.”

While Giles is looking through a few books, Faith approaches him and Willow. “So, Angel? He your boy toy from last night?”

Xander and Willow share a glance, that he knows Faith can see. “Well, mate may be a better term.”

“Mate?” Faith is giving him a more suspicious look now.

“Yep. Mate, as in mated. Together.” When he keeps getting the narrow eyed look, he relents. “I’m not so human. Not a werewolf and not a demon. Angel is also not human but nothing like the rest of his species.” That was actually pretty good, the truth without being detailed.

“What exactly are you and Angel?” This girl definitely has a stake first policy, he can see her hand reaching for a weapon; just what he needed..ugh.

Giles joins the conversation again by clearing his throat. He glances at Xander, who nods for him to explain. The watcher could probably do it without making Faith all stake happy.

“Um, well. You see-.” Xander is losing hope that he won’t just get staked before Giles clears his throat again and continues. “Xander was possessed by a hyena spirit, that was in turn possessed by a true primal. Primal’s are very strong spirits and this one chose to stay with Xander when the hyena spirit was exorcized. It gave him extra strength and enhanced senses. It also drew Angel and him together.” Giles told the slayer and Xander was a little surprised the man had left some fairly large details out. Such as, his ability to shift.

“And Angel?” They all shared glances and none wanted to be the one who told her.

Xander figured it was his duty, as it was his mate. “Angel is a vampire-.” “What?!” “With a soul.” Xander continued to talk, in a louder voice. “He was cursed with a soul a century ago. He doesn’t kill to feed, mostly he uses blood bags and some from me. Angel has helped us against the vampires and other demons we’ve faced. He killed his Sire and his grandsire, who was The Master-the vampire that killed Buffy. My mate has drastically diminished the fledge population and scared off some of the more aggressive demons. So you will not stake him.” The last was unmistakably a command.

Faith just looks at them and shakes her head before walking out of the door with a parting comment. “I need to think about this.”

When Xander was sure Faith was far enough away that she wouldn’t hear him, he told Giles about the lie she had told about her own watcher, the night before.

“I’ll look into it, give the retreat a call.” With that, Xander and Willow headed to class.

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Xander is hanging in the library, skipping a class, when Giles and Buffy come back in talking about some vampire named Kakistos, who is so old he has cloven hooves. When Buffy decides to go ask, _confront_ , Faith about the vampire, Xander chooses to tag along and maybe help with damage control. Before either can leave, Giles calls them back and tells them that her watcher is dead, the Watcher’s Council had finally gotten back to him. Making this seem less and less like a coincidence.

The two are heading out of the school when a boy, Scott Hope, who has liked Buffy since the year before, stops them. He asks her to some festival that weekend and Xander is trying to give them some privacy. Buffy has seemed a little reluctant but Willow was right, the girl said she wanted normal and Scott seems pretty normal. After Buffy agrees, the boy presents her with a small box and says that it’s suppose to represent friendship.

When Buffy opens the box, there is a Claddagh ring and Xander can’t help but smile. “Good choice. My boyfriend gave me one of those. The hands represent friendship, the heart love, and the crown loyalty.” Xander winces a little for interrupting but it seems Buffy needs a few moments, her heart had speed up and her scent had gone a little sour.

Scott is distracted slightly. “Oh, well I didn’t know about the other meanings. I mean-. Uh-.” The teen stutters a few more times before Xander jumps back in.

“Relax, it can be for just friendship or friendship that leads to more or between two lovers. My boyfriend is Irish and the ring came about in Galway, Ireland in the 1700s, I believe. There has even been meaning added to how the ring is worn in recent years.”

Buffy is still glancing between the Claddagh ring on Xander’s finger and the one in her hands. She quietly thanks Scott and the there is some more awkward talk before Xander has to interrupt again.

“I’m really sorry to interrupt but Buffy we really have to go.” Xander is confused by the almost relieved scent that Buffy is putting off. If she didn’t actually like the boy, she should have said no. Maybe she had a summer romance and is still getting over that.

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When they arrive at some disgusting motel and Buffy reaffirms this is where Faith is staying, Xander can’t believe that the new slayer is staying here. The door to Faith’s room is open and Xander can hear her talking with someone about paying for the room. Xander decides he needs to talk to Giles about where Faith is staying, the girl could easily stay with Giles or Buffy and not in this disgusting place.

Plus, a motel isn’t secure against vampires entering and having a slayer in constant battle mode wasn’t a good idea; especially one that seemed to have some personal issue with a vamp. Xander had read some of the old watcher diaries that Giles had and some talked about the consequences of a slayer not having a safe place to go to and being forced to stay alert constantly; none of them good. It could burn a slayer out even quicker or enhance their natural aggression to a point that made them unsafe.

When Buffy mentions Kakistos, Faith’s heart starts going crazy and her scent makes Xander’s noise wrinkle. Though the watcher comment from Buffy is a total low blow, it makes the other slayer pause. Her scent is so mixed with grief and guilt that Xander can hardly smell anything else.

The knock on the door catches them all by surprise but Xander shakes his head when Faith goes to open it. “Vampires.” He mouths and motions for them to escape out the back. The cloven hoofed vampire bursts through the door with a few others, as Xander is leaping out the small window last into the alley behind the motel. They go through another window into a warehouse and some of the vampires run past.

Faith admits to seeing Kakistos torturing and killing her watcher and her running, when Buffy asks her again what happened. Then they realize they’ve been herded into Kakistos’ hiding place. Kakistos and two other vampires burst in and Faith freezes up.

Xander helps Buffy with the two that go for her and stakes a female vampire while Buffy takes care of the other. They see Faith get knocked out by Kakistos and they both go after him to draw him away from the other slayer. Xander gets a cloven hoof to the face that sends him flying back after an ineffective punch to the massive vampire’s side. Then the stake Buffy uses is too small and doesn’t make it to his heart. As Xander is getting back up, still a little dazed, Faith shoves a wooden beam through Kakistos’ heart and they all watch as he burst into dust.

“One got away.” Xander tells them as they are leaving, the vampire had been at the far edges and had left once he realized the odds weren’t in Kakistos favor.

Later, when they are telling Giles about the fight, Xander gives more detail about the other vampire. Black male, slender, and in a nice suit and he seemed entirely unwilling to help Kakistos in his revenge against Faith.

Angel still hadn’t gotten the name of the other vampire but when Xander mentioned Faith had taken out Kakistos, his mate had been surprised the other vampire was still alive. Supposedly, Angel had helped kill Kakistos decades before during WWI or had thought he had.

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The Watcher’s Council decides to let Faith stay in Sunnydale with Giles acting as her watcher till they assign a new one. Ms. Summers had also offered their spare room after Xander told Giles about Faith’s living conditions and the man had asked if Buffy’s mother would house the extra slayer. Buffy seemed less then pleased that Faith will be staying with her. Xander would have thought that the girl would have been grateful for the help and having a shared workload now.

Ms. Summer forces Faith to sign up for classes because the girl had apparently quit her last school in Boston and hadn’t graduated yet. Giles and Willow agree they would help her catch up, so she could graduate this year with the rest of them. Faith puts up a little complaint but Xander can tells it’s mostly for show. Even in the little interaction they’ve had he can see she holds her self to the fringe, even when she is the center of attention, and knows they’ll need to make sure she doesn’t feel excluded.

Giles asks Xander to start sparring with Buffy again and with Faith as well. He agrees only because he wants to see Faith fight more, she has an edge over Buffy it seems. Besides, he wouldn’t mind someone to keep him company on his parkour runs since Buffy stopped coming.

Xander wonders if she might be stronger because she is the _true_ slayer, since technically Buffy died and the slayer _whatever_ passed on to the next. He still plans to hold back some because you never want to show a possible enemy everything you have, even if it makes him uncomfortable thinking about either slayer as a possible enemy.

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Xander finally gets to try out one of his new spells. Giles meets him at Willy’s, so they can cast the spell for the first time. Angel had easily talked the owner into having a no-violence spell added to the bar because the man was often paying for damage that was caused by demons fighting and this would also stop violence against him. The spell if it worked correctly would stop most any violence from occurring inside the bar. Willy had already added a sign on the wall behind the bar that told everyone to take their fights out back.

Xander ground the mix of dried herbs, drop of lavender oil, and fresh water, with a small granite mortar and pestle, that would be smudged on the four cardinal directions of the building. North, South, East, West. As he was doing this, Giles was laying a thin line of salt around the building to act as a barrier for the spell. When the mixture was smeared on the four point and Xander was standing in the most center position inside the bar, he spoke the words for the spell.

“Ut nulla vis habitare. Ut nulla vis habitare. Ut nulla vis habitare.”

(May no violence dwell here.) Xander had practiced the pronunciation a hundred times and while the Latin words felt awkward on his tongue, they were said correctly. A rush of air and, swirling green and brown, magic swelled out from him and he could feel as his magic and will sunk into the building. The spell left him light-headed and slightly tired, as this had been the first big spell he had ever cast but he could feel that it was successful.

When Xander walked out of the bar he was greeted with a “Well done” from Giles, and couldn’t keep the large grin off his face. It had worked! The teen could just barely see his magic as it shimmered around the building in almost invisible swirls before it seemed to settle.

“I can’t wait to show Willow and we can do everyone’s house soon. I’m hoping the no-ill-will and no-violence spells will be able to be overlapped without counteracting each other. Morimoto, the demon who is opening that restaurant, agreed to look at the spells and give his opinion as well before we try it.” Xander told Giles as they walked back to the Jeep and the teen handed the keys to the older man as he still felt a little light-headed.

Giles had come to the mansion early that morning and it still wasn’t even 11 am after placing the spell, which meant Xander had been up way too early for a Saturday. He had shown Giles the small room off the library where he did most of his magic and the chest of supplies with his own grimoire in it. All his supplies were meticulously arranged in the beautiful wooden chest Angel had gifted him and it made him feel like a true witchcraft practitioner.

The watcher had been impressed by how seriously he was taking learning this craft and how well prepared he was; that he was being responsible with witchcraft, as it was a gift that should never be treated like a toy or carelessly. Xander hadn’t been able to stop the flush that had crossed his face at the praise, it wasn’t very often that authority figures had good words for him. He didn’t count Angel, as the vampire was his mate and a little biased.

As they drove back to the mansion, Xander thought about what Giles had discovered about Amy. The watcher had used a truth geas on the girl after they had left that day and asked her questions about her uses of magic. Giles had discovered she had strayed farther into dark magic then the man had presumed, even with Xander’s reaction.

The girl had been going to some warlock, Rack, who was the equivalent of a magic drug dealer, and actually getting ‘high’ on magic. It had made her addiction to magic even more severe, causing her to both use magic more and visit the warlock more often. A deadly vicious cycle she had been unable to break. This Rack, who Giles had yet to be able to locate, was giving Amy small bits of his own dark magic and draining her of her own more powerful natural magic. The exchange and addicting rush of darker magic was what caused the ‘high’ and false boost of power. Angel had ears out in the demon community for any information they could bring him about this warlock.

Giles had sent the girl to a small San Francisco coven he was familiar with to have her magic bound till she learned responsibility and to go through a sort of magic detox. It was much like quitting an addiction cold turkey and going through serious withdrawals. If they hadn’t caught this in time, her addiction to magic and frequent visits to Rack would have killed her; as the warlock was literally sucking out her natural magic and life along with it. Even now, when her magic was unbound it would possibly never be as strong as it could have been because of the warlock’s theft. Amy was staying with the coven for now and would be there till they felt she would have a better chance against straying again, the coven had even enrolled her in school there.

Willow had been particularly upset by this and had told them that Amy had recently invited her to visit ‘a friend who would show her a new type of magic’ with her once but she had been unable to go. They all agreed it was likely to take Willow to Rack and all were thankful that she hadn’t gone. Willow had also confessed she been practicing more and more magic over the summer at Amy’s prodding, that they had talked on the phone a lot while the other girl had been out of town.

Xander just hoped this would stop Willow from trying to rush ahead because he didn’t want to lose his oldest friend and especially not to something that seemed like such a large part of himself now. He hoped Amy got the help she needed and that maybe being away from the Hellmouth’s influence would help her heal faster.

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Oz and Xander are sitting in the middle of a clearing, _their clearing_ honestly because it was well marked by the both of them and not many animals would be stupid enough to venture near it because of the scent of two predators. They had been coming to the clearing in the Los Padres National Forest since that first time during the summer.

Xander was excited to change with Oz and run through the woods together. He loved the free feeling he always got when he was on four paws and just running with everything he had and the triumph he felt when they took down prey. The tearing of meat and crunch of bones always left him deeply satisfied and pleasantly full. Running in the forest was much more satisfying then running and playing in the warehouse, he enjoyed the feel and smell of forest dirt beneath his paws more then he could describe.

They had been trying to see if Oz could change before the moon rose and if it would be more painful or less, the last couple full moons. So far, Oz had only been able to grow some hair on his face, arms, and hands, along with sharpened teeth but Xander wasn’t discouraged because it had taken him a long time to reach his own second form. If Oz could turn when he wanted to and maybe even not turn on the full moon, the werewolf could be added muscle when it was needed for slaying. Oz had been gaining more awareness during the full moon and usually remembered a majority of it now but Xander made sure they stayed far away from any humans.

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Xander collapsed in bed in the very early hours of the morning and hoped to get a few hours of sleep before going to school and was appreciative he had a free period for his first class. He figured Oz was probably settling in for sleep in the guest bedroom he most often used.

Angel wrapped an arm around Xander and pulled him close, the vampire’s chest pressed tightly against his back and the barely there beat of his mate’s heart soothed him to sleep. Their combined scent a comfort, as it surrounded them.

Waking up a few hours later was one of the hardest things he had to do recently. He had turned in his sleep and was tucked against Angel’s chest and took the opportunity to lay a few kisses against it before moving away. It took all his willpower to remove Angel’s arms from around him and ignore the sleepy grumbling from his mate to stay in bed.

After a second shower to help wake him up, he met Oz back in the kitchen. Xander peeked in the refrigerator to see what was available and found a large bowl of cut-up fruit, a square container of blueberry waffles with a note to pop them in the toaster to warm them up, and a carafe of fresh orange juice. He plowed through two waffles and over half the bowl of fruit before he was satisfied. Oz ate much less and was for some reason usually less hungry then he was, after changing back.

Xander seemed to need more calories for his change then Oz, it likely took more energy because Oz’s was more natural because he was a werewolf. While Xander was forcing his magic to change his form, using the ghost of an imprint left on the primal from her possessing hyenas. Although, consuming a good deal of food while they were in animal form helped greatly.

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They meet Giles, Willow, and Faith in the library when they make it to school and Giles is highly agitated. Giles tells them a friend of Oz’s, Jeff Walken, was found mauled the night before and when Giles asks where they were last night, Xander has to put a stop to those thoughts.

“Oz was with me and we were both deep in the Los Padres National Forest. We didn’t come across any humans and the only victims of last night was Bambi’s mother.”

Giles pulled off his glasses and started cleaning them. “Well, I had to be sure. You are positive there is no chance you could have made it back to Sunnydale?”

“Not a chance. We stayed right around the clearing we normally change in. I didn’t even get a whiff of human scent, last night.” Their clearing wasn’t near any frequented hiking trails and Xander always kept a nose out for human scent.

“Hold on. I thought you said you weren’t a werewolf. You never said you change.” Faith jumps into the conversation.

“I’m not a werewolf. The hyena spirit left a sort of imprint on me and the primal, giving me the ability to change shape. Though it was something I had to work with and even before that I was able to play with Oz during the full moon because I’m immune to his bite. We use to do full moons in a warehouse Angel set up for that purpose but over the summer we started to use the forest about 45 minutes from Sunnydale. We drive up there and up a long dirt road, then when the road ends we hike about another hour. Oz is gaining more control and remembering more of his time shifted because of it.”

“Which is good and bad because I can now remember eating a deer…raw.” Oz’s face is scrunched up slightly in disgust.

“But that’s the best parts of the night! Hunting together. You don’t like it?” Xander is actually surprised because he honestly loves that part, the feeling of the hunt and flesh ripping apart between his teeth.

“As a werewolf but as a human, I’m a little queasy about memories of tearing apart an animal.” Huh, that never bothers Xander. Though he’s pretty sure he’s more in touch with his animal side then Oz is, which is a little funny. Ripping apart his prey is fun and entirely enjoyable and doesn’t bother him in the lest when he changes back.

“You hunt?!” Buffy exclaims, she had come back in when Xander was explaining to Faith about himself.

“Of course we do. That’s why I decided we would spend full moons out in the forest, so that Oz’s werewolf instincts could be appeased without hurting a human. When we stayed in the warehouse, Angel always just provided huge chucks of meat and bones from the butchers.”

“I would feel better if you didn’t do that the next two nights. Even if it wasn’t Oz, something is out there mauling humans. It could be another werewolf or something else entirely.” Giles request and Oz nods but doesn’t join the conversation.

“Oz can stay in the cage here and we could keep an eye on him.” Buffy suggests.

Xander can’t help but laugh. “So anyone could see a werewolf hanging out in the library and plus, I doubt that could truly hold Oz if he wanted out. We’ll use the warehouse if G-man really thinks it’s necessary and I’ll have Angel patrol around it tonight. Is that okay with you Oz?”

“Yep.” The taciturn werewolf responds and both ignore Buffy’s irritated huff.

“Alright, I suppose that will work. We need to check on the body and see if we can gain any evidence of how Mr. Walken’s died.” Giles suggests.

Xander isn’t entirely thrilled he is volunteered for checking out the morgue but at least he isn’t the only one, as Willow and Faith end up coming along.

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The next day Buffy finds the school counselor, Mr. Platt, dead and he was mauled as well, part of his face looking chewed off. Proving that Oz couldn’t be the culprit because Xander and Oz had been in the warehouse the entire night with Angel keeping an eye on them from the rafters. His mate had told them they had stayed the whole night, when they changed back in the morning and had headed to the mansion.

Xander, Willow, Oz, and Faith spend lunch with Buffy, Scott, and two of his friends, Debbie and Pete. Most of the group is quiet and glum because they were friends with Walken. When they are leaving Xander follows close behind Pete and gets a large whiff of his scent and the strong smell of chemicals that is leaking from his skin with a hint of blood. Xander gets Buffy and Faith’s attention and motions for them to follow after him. Pete and Debbie are disappearing into a storage closet when the girls catch up to him.

“What?” Buffy asks irritated.

“That guy, Pete, he smells really strongly of chemicals and a hint of blood that isn’t his. Debbie was really nervous and didn’t want to follow him at first. The scent is similar to a steroid smell. I figured we could see what was up.” Xander whispers as they creep closer to the storage closet.

Xander is able to hear Pete getting upset about something missing and Debbie telling him that she got rid of it because of what it did to him. Xander, Buffy, and Faith burst through the door when they hear Debbie cry out and they all see Pete looking monstrous.

Xander goes straight for Pete, leaping at him and taking him down in a hard tackle while Buffy gets Debbie out of the room. She is yelling at them to not hurt Pete and fighting, ineffectively, against Buffy’s hold on her. Xander is able to finally knock the guy unconscious after slamming his head into the concrete floor a few times. The fight was much shorter then Xander expected it to be but he figured getting the jump on the guy helped in taking him down so quickly.

Xander grabs the jar with a thin layer of glowing green stuff in it and hands it off to Faith because the smell coming from the jar is similar to the scent leaking from Pete’s skin. The guy morphs back in a more human visage and Xander throws him over his shoulder, while Buffy pulls Debbie with her and they all head to the library with Faith acting as look out.

When they make it to the library, Xander chunks Pete into the book cage and locks the door. Buffy pushes Debbie down into a seat and tries to make her talk about what caused Pete to change like that. The girl resists at first and Xander throws down some of the pictures the coroner had taken of the two victims. Debbie gasps and turns her head, closing her eyes.

Giles had just gotten the coroner’s conclusion about Mr. Platt and that it happened during the day, which had ruled out another werewolf. That was unnecessary as now they had the likely culprit because Oz mentioned that the two victims were linked to Debbie.

“Who’s gonna be next?” Buffy asks as she keeps the girls head turned towards the pictures.

A halting, and terrifying, story pours out of the girl. Pete had originally made something to make himself more macho, for Debbie. Debbie had gotten rid of the stuff and that had lead to him getting upset before they burst into the room. Pete no longer needed the amped up steroids to change. He could change when he got mad and blamed his changing on Debbie making him angry.

Pete started waking up in the cage and when he finally came to, he jumped up. “What the hell is going on?!”

“You’re in there for your own safety and others.” Giles tells Pete, who was just getting more and more agitated.

“You told them didn’t you?!” He screams at Debbie before starting to change again. Xander grabs the tranquilizer gun and shoots him with a dart but he just tears it out and goes to rip the door off the cage. Xander fires another two darts into the transformed Pete and it still takes a few moments before he goes down. The cage door is half torn off and Buffy is holding a struggling Debbie, who had tried to lunge for the tranquilizer gun in Xander’s hands.

Xander and Oz leave the library, to head to the forest for the last night of the full moon, after they had spent a couple hours trying to figure out what to do with Pete. The group still hadn’t come to any solid conclusions and Debbie was less then helpful, as she kept crying and blaming herself. Mostly it depended on if the changes were irreversible or not and just how cooperative Pete decided to be.

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Xander tiredly sank into the tub the night after the last night of Oz’s change and Angel joins him, sliding in behind him and running his hands up and down Xander’s stomach and chest. The teen lets himself just enjoy the sensual feeling of his mate’s touch and the warm sandalwood scented water, melting his stress away.

Angel’s hand slips down and around Xander’s hard cock, giving it a few gentle pumps causing the teen to start rocking back and forth. Then it only takes a few minutes of rocking together to reach an easy orgasm that helps to finish melting the last of the stress from the last few days away. Xander turns his head to share a few soft, lingering, kisses with his mate before baring his neck, wanting to reconnect in that way as well. The intense feeling of his mate’s bite sends shivers down his spine and the feeling of pleasure from the sucking sensation cause his spent cock to twitch with enjoyment.

They hadn’t seen each other much the last few days because Xander had been spending his nights with Oz. Angel usually barely woke when Xander would climb into bed in the early morning and depending on the time he got home from school, wasn’t always awake yet. Tonight Angel had, had a nice dinner set out on the table with a few candles and they caught up with each other before heading upstairs.

When they got out, Xander toweled his mate off and kissed the water off the red tattoo over Angel’s heart that was proof of their mating; he often kissed or licked the symbol. Then after returning the favor, Angel lead him to bed and made him lay on his stomach. What followed was a religious experience and Xander would forever pray to Angel and his hands. The massage made him melt into the mattress and entirely too sleepy to do anything other then drift in and out of consciousness.

Xander’s last thought before he completely surrendered to sleep was that he had wanted more sexy times with his mate and he knew morning sex was most likely out of the question because Angel was always close to comatose as the sun rose.

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A solution to the ‘Pete Problem’ is finally decided upon in the following days. Willow with Pete’s help, even if it is a little forced, makes something to reverse the changes made by his original formula, which are already starting to weaken. If he started to get upset before he was given the antidote, they would tranq him a few times and wait for him to wake up. They threaten him against doing something similar and that he has already done enough damage, between killing two people and hurting the girl he supposedly loves. Giles forces both of them to talk to the new counselor or himself if they need to speak specifics.

Scott is left in the dark and doesn’t understand the tension between his two friends or how they act towards Buffy and her friends. The relationship between Scott and Buffy seems awkward and Buffy stills seems slightly reluctant but they continue to ‘date’.

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Cordelia asks, no demands, Xander to be her date to the Homecoming dance. That he was now cool enough because he was gay and dressed better and he wouldn’t expect sex in return for being her date. Xander relents even though he had no previous intentions of going to the dance and they make plans to go dress and tux shopping.

When Willow asks him later to go shopping for a dress with her, as she plans to surprise Oz and he’s going to look with Scott, he folds and invites her along with him and Cordy. She is less then pleased but agrees and Xander slips away to warn Cordelia, who is even less pleased. He begs the Homecoming Queen obsessed girl to please behave and make this experience as painless for all of them as possible and that if Willow says something, Cordelia is more then welcome to a come back but otherwise at least pretend to be nice.

Then Buffy decides she wants to be Homecoming Queen, as well, because she can’t let a challenge from Cordy go. When the blond slayer tries to enlist their aid, Xander says he’s already agreed to help Cordelia and Willow tells Buffy she’ll help but she already planned to look for a dress with Xander and Cordelia later that day.

After a horrific few hours at the mall, they all head back to the mansion to try on their outfits again. Xander had decided to just buy a nice black suit jacket, black waistcoat, and green tie that matched Cordelia’s dress. He already had a white dress shirt, black slacks, and shoes that would go with it. Cordelia has a green dress that complemented her perfectly and Willow has a simple sleeveless black dress that Cordy hadn’t entirely agreed with but Xander thinks she looks nice.

Xander complements them both on looking pretty when they try their dresses on again at the mansion. Cordelia even tells him he cleans up well, which is a major complement coming from her.

“Sucks you can’t go with Angel.” Cordelia says as she looks at herself in the mirror.

“Yep. With the only high school age dates allowed and all for this dance. Though I absolutely plan to drag him to prom whether he likes it or not, I figured he could pass for a college student.”

“You won’t have to drag me, I’ll take any chance to dance with you.” Angel says as he comes into the room, obviously straight from bed as his hair is still rumpled from sleep. The vampire has nothing but a pair of low riding black silk pajama pants on and Cordelia is eyeing Angel up like he is the last pair of on sale designer boots in her size; he is familiar with that look from when she has dragged him shopping. “Ya look good, mo shearc (my love). Canna’ wait to take it off ya.” The low words still loud enough for the two girls to hear.

Willow makes a noise at the comment from Angel but Xander is too busy being kissed by Angel to pay much attention to either girl. He can’t wait for that either and wishes he could just skip the dance part and get straight to the taking clothes off part.

They eventually head back to the school, so Xander can help Cordy and Willow can help Buffy with their campaigning. Xander hopes to never go through this again but isn’t fooled into thinking that Cordy won’t be running for Prom Queen when the time comes and that he will again be enlisted to help her. This is what he gets for befriending Queen C.

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Xander is becoming more and more sure that all the women in his life have gone crazy, when Cordy and Buffy nearly get into a screaming match in the hallway at school the next day. He can’t wait till this mess is all over.

Willow and Faith decide that Cordy will go with Buffy in the Limo, so maybe the two girls can work it out. Xander doesn’t think this is a good idea but neither girl listens to him. He thinks it’s a much smarter idea to keep them as far apart as possible till this whole disaster is done with but again, no one listens to him.

When Buffy and Cordy are late for the dance, Xander is pretty sure they may have decided to kill each other instead of working it out but tries not to worry too much.

Xander shoos Willow off to dance with Oz and reassures Scott that his date will be there soon, that they must have just been hung up for some reason. He dances with Faith, who looks lovely in a dark wine red dress, and playfully returns her flirting without a hint of blushing; reminds her he could probably teach her something as his mate has a few centuries of experience. The Xander from before the primal and being mated to Angel would probably be drooling, that not only had he managed to get Cordelia as a date to the dance but actually danced with Faith. Now, he is surrounded by beautiful girls but isn’t interested in a single one of them…the strangeness of his life.

Cordelia and Buffy finally make it just as the Queen is being announced, they _both_ lose to a tie between the other two candidates. They both look dirty and their dresses aren’t exactly pristine anymore. When the two go to turn around to walk out; Xander, Faith, and Willow go to stop them. Faith talks them into going to clean up some in the bathroom and coming back.

Before the two girls go they give a very short explanation of what happened. A Mr. Trick, who is mostly likely the vampire that left when he saw Kakistos losing, set up some ‘SlayerFest 98’ and set some demons and humans after Buffy and Cordelia, though it was suppose to be Buffy and Faith. The two were able to take care of it before making it to the dance.

Xander has a couple dances with Cordelia before the Homecoming dance ends and sees Buffy dancing with Scott and trying to explain about the ‘limo accident’, her and Cordelia were in. He hopes the Prom will be calmer but that almost guarantees that it won’t be.

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Angel stripping off his tux is even hotter then he imagined and then his hands are tied above his head with his tie, when he is laid out on their bed.

By the time his mate finally sinks into him, he has already come twice and his cock is trying, mostly unsuccessfully, to harden completely for a third time. Xander’s voice is hoarse from begging for close to an hour and when he feels his mate push into him he gives a whimper of pleasure. Angel had kissed and licked him from toe to ear, leaving trails of healing hickey and bite marks across his flushed skin. The vampire had teased him with barely there touches of his tongue and fingers to his hard cock and filthy words whispered in his ear.

Now his legs were pushed up and apart to open him up even more for Angel and the vampire thrust quickly into him. The sounds of skin slapping against skin and his heavy panting seem loud to his ears. It was only a few minutes before Angel grunted and slammed his hips even harder against Xander’s a few more times, erratically, before coming. Xander was actually surprised his mate had even lasted that long, as the vampire had denied himself coming before now and Angel’s thick cock had been flushed and painful looking with the foreskin pulled completely back before he had finally sank into Xander’s body.

When Angel pulled out of his body with a slick noise, his cock was still mostly hard and hung heavy between his legs with the foreskin just covering the head. Xander wanted to get his mouth on it but he wasn’t really into the ass to mouth thing, even if Angel never seemed to mind putting his mouth on Xander’s dick after it had been in him. Although, Angel didn’t have the same bodily functions as Xander, so...

Angel undid the tie from around his wrists and kissed the slightly bruised skin, even as it healed before their eyes. Then the vampire laid out beside him and they just kissed lazily, little nips and flashes of tongue that didn’t turn into anything else.

Xander tucked his head against Angel’s chest and just breathed his mate’s comforting scent in and allowed himself to drift off to sleep.

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Buffy and Willow call him while in the middle of being distracted from studying for the SATs by his mate, who was home for the evening. Just to tell him that adults were acting like teenagers and to see if he could meet Willow and Oz at the library. He wanted to refuse but eventually agreed and headed out, leaving his mate pouting on the sofa.

Buffy calls the library with the name of a demon, Larconis, who was being offered a large tribute that night and that the candy was to be a distraction. Ethan, who was behind the candy, of course, had admitted to knowing that the vampire Trick was behind it and even the name of the demon but hadn’t known what the tribute was, other then it was large and they needed the adults otherwise occupied. Xander grabs the phone from Willow and tells Buffy to give the chaos mage an extra punch to the gut for him. He was getting entirely tired of Ethan Rayne and his chaos, particularly when it interrupted his last minute cramming for the SAT’s the next day or the being distracted from studying by a very _distracting_ Angel.

Xander’s glad he didn’t eat any of the candy but he wonders if it would have worked on him as he is already a teenager. He had given Snyder forty bucks and handed the man the box of chocolate bars back, as they didn’t smell good to him. Which probably should have been a sign that something was wrong, him not wanting to eat chocolate.

Oz finds out that the tribute is newborn babies every thirty year and Giles, in all his teenage glory, remembers that the demon lives in the sewers. Ethan swears, again, he had no idea what the tribute was and if he did he wouldn’t have done it. This doesn’t stop Xander from wanting to hunt the man down and beat some sense into him.

Xander decides to meet up with Buffy to offer back up, as he figures Giles and Ms. Summers may not be much help in their current state. Faith was still at Buffy’s asleep, having gone to bed early instead of going to the Bronze with Buffy and Willow. When he meets up with them he can smell Giles and Ms. Summers all over each other and they are looking at each other like they want to continue whatever they had been doing that caused them to smell like that. At least whatever had been happening between Giles and Ms. Calendar had seemed to fizzle out already.

They all head into the sewers and, thankfully, they make it in time to save all the newborns. Giles and Ms. Summers start to wheel the babies out, while Buffy and Xander fight off the vampires. The demon appears when Buffy throws a vampire into a small pool of water, it is a massive worm/snake looking creature.

Mr. Trick challenges Buffy but Giles decides to step in and takes a punch at the vampire and is easily tossed aside into the same pool that had brought the demon out previously. While Buffy goes to save her watcher and set Larconis on fire, Xander slams Trick in the face with a broken off wooden torch. While the vampire is distracted by his burnt face, Xander slams the flaming end into the vampire’s chest and watches as he turns to dust in a burst of flames. You would think that vampire’s wouldn’t keep so much fire around them when they are so flammable.

They take the babies back to the maternity ward before separating and heading home. Buffy left to wrangle her mom and Giles. Xander gives up on anymore studying because if he hasn’t learned it by now, then he doubts he will learn it in the next few hours.

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After the exhausting SATs, which isn’t helped by the fact that he had so little sleep the night before, he drives home in a daze and then stumbles up the stairs before collapsing into his magnificently soft bed. He struggles out of his clothes and under the goose down comforter.

Angel partly wakes and pulls Xander into his arms before mumbling something and falling back to sleep. Xander lays there a few minutes and lets the knowledge that he hadn’t been entirely clueless about the test lull him into a well deserved sleep.

When the two wake up, much later, Xander tells Angel that he felt like he did okay on the SATs and Angel decides to take him out on a date for a celebration. The mated couple head to the Thai restaurant they went to for their very first date and then catch a late movie.

It’s so nice to have these _normal_ evenings in between all the Hellmouth business and Xander gets to feel like a regular teenager. Not much more normal then a teenager on a date with their boyfriend.

Later that night, Xander sits in a chair in the corner of Angel’s studio and watches the man draw. It’s an amazing thing to see and Xander wishes he could draw so he could show Angel just how stunning he looks when he is so focused because pictures with his digital camera do the vampire no justice. He can sit in the studio for hours in silence and just watch his mate draw, little else can hold his attention so long.

The teen is the subject of a highly embarrassing number of Angel’s drawings; from Xander sleeping, eating, laughing, doing homework, fighting, or in the middle of passion. But it’s incredible to be able to see how Angel _sees_ him, no matter if he thinks the vampire should find a new subject on occasion. They have half a dozen framed drawings in their bedroom and plenty more scattered throughout the rest of the house; Xander just keeps the more intimate ones to the bedroom or studio.

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Mrs. Post is up to no good, that Xander can be sure of, her scent and heart tell an entirely different story then her words. Faith’s new watcher appears with news of a demon, Lagos, who is after the Glove of Myhnegon **_and_** that she will be observing Giles’ performance as a watcher and reporting it to the Council. Xander has to bite his lip and hold in a laugh when he hears her tell him that they fear he has become ‘too America’. Her sudden appearance seems more then a little odd to him and with the deceit that is leaking from her, he plans to be very wary of her.

Xander isn’t able to get Giles alone without seeming obvious, so heads home and tells Angel what he’s found out. His mate recognizes the name Glove of Myhnegon and may even know where it’s at, planning to retrieve it if he can.

When he’s back in the library the next day he goes into Giles office telling him he is looking for a certain book, one that the librarian knows he has at home. He’s hoping the man will see he needs a private word as he doesn’t want to tip off Mrs. Post and Giles comes in shortly after, offering help in finding the book.

Xander quickly tells him about Angel recognizing the Glove and that he may know where it’s at and Giles confirms that he believes it is in the von Hauptmann crypt in the Restfield cemetery, as well. The teen also tells him to be wary of Mrs. Post that her scent and heartbeat don’t always match her words. He makes a speedy exit from the library with a large book in his hands and heads to class, as he doesn’t want to be around Mrs. Post anymore then he has to, as she gives him the wiggins.

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Xander is at the Bronze playing pool with Oz before his bands gets up on stage, when Faith appears. “Hey, Faith. Wanna play winner?”

The brunette girl shakes her head. “No. Actually, I wanted to talk to you. Are you guys keeping secrets from me?” Which confuses him. They had already told her about himself and Angel and that was the only thing that they’d been detail light on.

When Xander asks why she would think that, the girl grudgingly admits her watcher told her that he and Giles were having a ‘secret’ meeting.

An apprehensive Xander explains to her that he was just telling Giles that Angel knew of the Glove and planned to retrieve it, which he had. That he and Giles planned to destroy it later tonight. He also mentions that something hinky was going on with Mrs. Post but Faith wasn’t willing to listen and stormed out, heading to find Giles and Angel, saying she didn’t trust a vampire with the Glove.

Xander follows after Faith, once he rounds up Buffy and Willow. They take his Jeep to make it back to the library right after Faith, even though she got a head start and could cut straight through a few of the cemeteries instead of going around. When they make it back to school, they find Giles laid out on the floor and Willow calls an ambulance.

Faith slams him against the wall, taking him completely by surprise.

“Where is Angel? Do you see what he did to Giles?” The brunette slayer is in his face, spitting out the words and Buffy is right behind her.

“Whoa! There is no way Angel did that, plus he hasn’t even been here today or I would have smelt him.” Xander protests but doesn’t break from her hold because he knows that will just piss her off more.

“Right, like you wouldn’t lie to save your vampire sugar daddy!” The girl sneers in his face.

Xander tries to get the slayers to calm down and tells them that they all just need to head to the mansion, that was where Giles was planning to meet Angel not the other way around. Xander, Buffy, and Faith agree to head to the mansion while Willow plans to stay with Giles and wait for the ambulance. She plans to also look through Giles’ notes for the living flame ritual that is needed to destroy the Glove. At least Willow isn’t outright believing Angel had attacked Giles and giving his mate the benefit of the doubt.

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When they make it to the mansion the door is wide open and they see Angel, vamped out, backhand Mrs. Post across the large foyer into a wall. The two slayers immediately join the fight, protecting the watcher, and Xander has to leap in to protect his mate. Xander is facing off against Faith after knocking her off of Angel, while Angel is covering Buffy, and it is obvious the mated pair work much better as a team. They are both doing their best to hold off the two enraged slayers but not do any major damage and trying to get them to stop fighting while both of the super-powered girls are aiming for the kill.

Xander is able to shove Faith away from him and then front kicks her savagely in the stomach, which sends her flying back into the stone wall, leaving her stunned. Angel has Buffy pinned to the ground with her arms pulled up and behind her back and his knees pressing her down into the floor and digging into her spine, giving her no leverage.

“Stop, just stop! You know we aren’t the enemies!” Xander is pleading with them as Faith struggles to stand. The slayers pause momentarily.

“He is blinded by love and can’t see the monster he is with. Trust me.” The female watcher says and it causes Buffy to renew her struggle against Angel and Faith has an expression of near feral hate on her face as she comes at him again.

Xander is able to use her own momentum to throw her away from him and as she lands, Willow comes into the mansion. She has something in her hands, likely part of the living flame catalyst, and goes to help Mrs. Post get the Glove but after the woman pulls the ugly thing out of the chest, she backhands Willow; who falls to the ground. This causes the four fighting to come to a complete stand still, as the woman puts the Glove on.

“What’s going on?” Faith confusedly asks her watcher.

The woman turns to them with a strange smile on her face. “Faith, a word of advice: you’re an idiot.” Then she uses the Glove to hurtle lightening at them and they only just scatter in time to miss it.

Angel grabs Willow out of the way of another bolt of lightening, saving her. Xander is now fighting _with_ Faith to help her keep the rogue watcher distracted as Buffy gets ready to attack her. The blond slayer severs the woman’s arm off above the top of the Glove with a large shard of glass. The woman screams as she is engulfed and consumed by the lightening she was just before commanding. All that is left is the severed arm on the ground, which the Glove releases.

Angel gets Willow and Xander to help him destroy it, most of the ritual already completed, using the living flame they watch as the Glove is blackened and burnt to ashes.

Xander turns to the two slayers. “I want you both out of my home. I can understand Faith’s reaction, as she has just recently lost one watcher to a vampire, but I don’t believe you Buffy. We were friends and you at least know both of us better then she does, enough to give us the benefit of the doubt. Who the hell just made your home safer, who brought you back to life, who killed the Master, saved you from Darla, helped you destroy the Judge? Me and Angel, without us you wouldn’t be alive.”

Buffy just raises her chin. “He’s a vampire and you’re his mate.”

Xander hardly hears Willow’s disbelieving gasp because rage is coursing through him and he knows he’s about to say something he may regret but has no intentions of holding it in.

“Well, he was a vampire when you kissed him, when you went after him like a bitch in heat, when you used a love spell to try to get his attention when we were already mated. So, what’s so different now? Finally realized you’ll never have him, that he loves me and not you. Finally got a boyfriend, so don’t want mine anymore?” He takes vicious satisfaction in watching each thing he says hit her, the slight flinches, the skipping of her heartbeat, and the sour scent that poured from her smelling like jealousy and a tangle of other emotions. He had honestly thought she was over this, over Angel. Hell, the girl was sort of dating Scott and had almost killed Angel over the Acathla thing.

Xander felt Angel’s hand on his back and used that as an anchor to calm down and pull back the anger that had spread through him like a wild fire. Faith was staring at Buffy like she had never seen her before and Willow was looking between all of them but not saying a word.

“Xander said get out. You aren’t welcome in _our_ home.” Angel says as he stands beside Xander.

The two slayer’s limp out of the still open front door, leaving behind the mess their fighting had caused, and Willow goes to follow but looks back at Xander, he tries to give her a smile but he knows it is hardly more then a grimace.

Xander and Angel look around at their foyer; small smears of blood, shards of glass, and black scorch marks mar the previously clean stone. One of the marble statues that had decorated the space lays broken on it side and a few of the small bench seats are splinted and smoking from being hit by lightening. The severed arm is still laying on the floor and the scent of burned flesh and the ozone of magic hangs heavy in the air.

“I’m going to get the broom and then call a cleaning company.” Angel says as he walks towards the kitchen. A list of numbers is on the fridge, one of which is for a demon run cleaning company that takes care of messes like this. Zia and Vey are out of town visiting one of their parents, those two always miss the fun. It will be days, if not weeks, before they will be able to get the stained glass windows replaced and Xander hopes the stench of burned flesh can be removed.

“Ok. I really wish we had gotten the spells done here before this happened, then that crazy lady wouldn’t have been able to get in.” Xander and Giles had been doing a house when they could on the weekends, layering both the no-ill-intent and no-violence spells together, the demon Morimoto having agreed that the spells would work together instead of counteracting each other. Xander had left their home for next to last because it would be slightly different for the mansion and the library was left for last, as they still hadn’t settled on what they planned to do with it exactly. They had already done Buffy’s, Willow’s, Oz’s, and Giles’ homes.

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Giles had woken to tell Buffy and Faith that Mrs. Post had knocked him out after he had told her he was planning to meet Angel to destroy the Glove of Myhnegon. Willow had told him that they had fought Angel and Xander and the slayers defended themselves by saying they thought they were protecting a watcher from a vampire.

Xander had waited till Giles was back home before visiting, to make sure he was doing alright and was made to retell what happened from his point of view. The teen admitted to sort of understanding Faith, as she didn’t really know him or Angel and she had just recently lost another watcher to a vampire. Nevertheless, he was still pissed off and not in friendly mood towards the two and wanted them to stay far from his home. Giles understood when Xander told him he would be going ahead with the spells for his own home, alone, and not waiting for the watcher to feel better.

Giles had told him that Mrs. Post had been released from the Watcher’s Council a few years previously because of her use of darker magics. Though the current knowledge of the slayers she had possessed, showed she probably had at least one contact within the Council.

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Xander breathed a sign of relief as he finished casting the last spell and sunk to his knees as magic poured from him. His magic was sinking into the stones of the mansion, much stronger then any of the previous castings but he imagined that had to do with this being his home. His signature brown and green magic shimmered across the walls as it settled in to protect the occupants of his home.

He had cleansed the mansion magically first before casting either spell to ensure that there was no interference. It was something that Giles had suggested for his own home, Willow’s, and Xander’s since they all were magic practitioners and would possibly have residue left over from previous spell casting. Xander had improved them since casting the first on Willy’s, allowing the residents of the house a certain amount of freedom from the spell and it allowed consensual violence, such as sparring.

The no-ill-will and no-violence spells were too late for the mess that had gone down with Mrs. Post but hopefully it would stop anything else like that from happening. Xander imagined that it would keep both of the slayers out, if they meant either Angel or himself harm. Plus, Angel had gained enemies by taking and holding the Master of Sunnydale position. Xander wanted them to be able to feel safe in their own home and had added every bit of will he could into the magic to ensure that.

He had already gotten a few request through Willy about other demons wanting something similar to what he had done at the bar. They wanted something that would protect their homes from the slayers, which some considered bogeymen, and other more aggressive demons. The teen was really surprised that more didn’t already have some kind of protection.

Xander figured he could charge a small fee for the service to cover the supplies and time, then advertise it through word of mouth. He knew Clem, a poker buddy, had been one of the first to ask for it to be done on his place, once he knew Xander had done it for the bar. The loose skinned demon was a complete pacifist and avoided violence at all cost, though Xander had seen him defend himself once and there was an incredible amount of strength in the unassuming demon.

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On Monday, Xander gets waylaid by Faith on the way to the library before his first class. He often used the free first period to do any homework he hadn’t done the night before or study for any tests or quizzes he was aware of. That or he slept in and didn’t make it to school till the bell for second period rang.

Faith looks awkward and Xander just raises an eyebrow, causing the girl to squares her shoulders. “Look, I’m sorry, ya know. I just-.” The brunette girl is biting her lip and looking more uncertain then Xander has even seen her.

Xander interrupts her. “I get it. You’re a slayer. Angel is a vampire and I’m not so human and his mate. You saw a vampire attacking your watcher and reacted accordingly. Doesn’t mean I’m not pissed or willing to have either of you two near my mate, anytime soon. You slayers all have a stake first mentality and it helps you survive but my priority is Angel.”

“I got played.” Xander nods at that because she did and it sure isn’t going to help with the issues Faith has with trust.

“Yeah but you thought she was your new watcher and they are someone you’re suppose to be able to trust completely. Give yourself a break and if nothing else, I know you can trust Giles. He has your guys best interests at heart and would do anything for you two.”

“You knew something was up with her and you warned Giles and me but I didn’t listen. And I want to hear what’s up with Buffy when it comes to Angel.” The dark hair girl demands.

Xander just shrugs. “She was a good liar but I have enhanced senses that let me hear someone’s heartbeat or smell their emotions. Buffy makes no sense when it comes to my mate but I’ll tell you, we can get burgers or something after school.” He wonders what Buffy has told Faith and if it’s anywhere near the truth. The blond girl’s flip flopping attitude could give you a headache.

Before walking into the library he adds. “Just so you know, I’m going to beat your ass sparring today.” The dark haired slayer is fun to fight with and a great running partner, he doesn’t want to lose that.

“Well, someone has been holding back cause you whooped my ass already.” Xander just smirks at that because he and Angel _had_ bested them, even while trying not to seriously injure them.

“I was pretty motivated by you two wanting to kill us.” Xander hopes it never comes to an actual fight to the death with either girl because as much animosity as he has towards Buffy and wariness of Faith, he doesn’t want to see either of them dead. He doesn’t want either to be a true enemy because he has no desire to have to kill one of them and he would do whatever was necessary to protect his mate.

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The day also brings his SAT scores. He’s entirely shocked at the 700 verbal and 710 math scores he received. While he had been doing better in school because he could concentrate better now, he didn’t think he would test so well. Cordelia’s scores are even better then his own and make her excited she will be getting out of Sunnydale, never to return again.

Although, Xander still hadn’t decided exactly what he wants to do after school and knew Angel would be burying him under information about schools and careers. He was pretty good with his hands and thought about going to vocational college for something in construction and figured if he liked it enough then he could go to architecture school. Hell, he really enjoyed practicing magic and maybe he could do something with that but it wasn’t like he was in a rush, he had plenty of time to figure it out. Xander only knew that wherever he went wouldn’t be in Sunnydale, as he didn’t think he and Angel would be staying long after he graduated. They hadn’t exactly spoke about it but Xander could feel their time here coming to an end.

Later, he tries to comfort an upset Willow but he can’t understand how she’s distressed with a 740 verbal score, that seems very impressive to him. Xander knows she’ll get into any college she applies too. He lets Oz take over when he arrives in the library, maybe he can handle this better. Then he goes in search of Giles, since he has news from Angel for him.

His mate had gotten a location on Rack but hadn’t been able to enter and it seemed the warlock moved around often. However, that wasn’t the major news he had. Angel had heard some whispering about the mayor and had began to look into him. The man was human but seemed to keep company with a variety of demons and rumor had it, that he was the one who had been paying tribute to Larconis and working with Trick. Xander didn’t mention that Angel was sure Spike was on his way back to Sunnydale and wouldn’t till Angel had spoken with the vampire to find out what he was up to.

“Oh my, I can’t believe we’ve never looked into the mayor or other such positions. They have to be in the know about Sunnydale or how else would they be able to keep the odd happenings under wraps.” Giles said frustratingly, shaking his head and cleaning his glasses.

“Angel thinks that there might be spells at work. I mean the ‘Sunnydale Syndrome’ has to be magic at work and even knowing the mayor could be a major player, I can feel myself want to let it go.” Xander commented before adding. “Even the little information that Angel has gotten hasn’t been easy to get and been mostly luck. He also has Willy relaying any information that he hears and the weasel only does so because he fears Angel more then anyone else.”

“Well, we shall start looking into the mayor more and maybe Willow can see if she can find any information from the computer. I’ll have to look into it more later, as I have that retreat in Breakers Woods and still need to pack supplies for it.” The teen agrees before heading off to class.

Xander had been interested in the retreat at the druidic ritual site but it was for more experienced magic practitioners and also time for Giles to get away from all the teenagers he was surrounded with. Something Xander could understand as he sometimes wanted to get away from teenagers and he was one himself. Giles had said he would keep an ear out for other such activities for newer practitioners of the craft and believed that there was at least a small coven at the local college.

After school, Xander, Cordelia, and Faith all go out for burgers together; the friendship growing between Cordy and Faith sends shivers down his spine. Those two could turn half the world’s population into drooling idiots and then take over the world.

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Xander is sitting at the breakfast bar and snacking while doing homework when he hears pounding on the front door and yelling. When he goes to see who it is, he is able to hear Spike yelling before he even opens the door. The smell of liquor and smoke coming from Spike is overpowering and makes him want to gag, when he opens the door.

The vampire stops yelling when the door opens before slurring. “Where’s Peaches? I’m gonna kill him, it’s all his fault Dru left me.”

Xander raises an eyebrow at the intoxicated vampire. “Spike you can’t even stand up straight, so how exactly are you going to kill your Sire? Plus, he isn’t here. How about you come in and tell me what happened and we can figure out a solution that doesn’t involve killing Angel, since I’m not going to allow that to happen.” Xander re-invites Spike back in, as they had done a uninviting ritual after Dru and Spike had left town. Mainly so Drusilla couldn’t get back into the mansion.

Spike looks back at his car that is parked in the middle of the courtyard with the door wide open before looking at Xander, like he’s actually trying to weigh how much work finding Angel will be. Then he gets a nod before the blond vampire stumbles across the threshold, which reassures Xander that he at least doesn’t mean him any harm.

Xander takes a seat back at the bar and tells Spike to tell him what happened, the teen has to stop himself from laughing when he hears the story. It seems that once Drusilla healed and didn’t need Spike, she left him and found herself a chaos demon and Spike still wants her back. Chaos demons have slime and antlers, there wasn’t anything that would make Xander touch one. That vampire was truly mad as a hatter and fickle as hell.

Spike had already gone by the warehouse they had stayed at some and trashed it before coming to the mansion to find Angel. He continued to complain about Drusilla not killing him and how it meant she didn’t care. When Xander said that maybe her not killing him, meant she still cared at least a little but Spike disagreed.

“Maybe you should worry less about getting her back and figure out what you really want. I mean from what you’ve said this isn’t the first time she left you and she is kinda crazy.” Xander doesn’t really have any good advice, he has no idea how to handle this.

“I’ve loved her for a century, gave her everything and I’m never enough. Always wanting her Daddy or something new that catches her eye. She’s my Dark Princess. What else am I supposed to do? Where am I gonna go now?” Spike sounds pitiful. At least Drusilla isn’t his Mate, like Xander is Angel’s, and maybe Spike can find someone who will love him back as much as he loves them.

“Well, you’re welcome to stay here. There’s a guest room for you.” Xander hopes he doesn’t come to regret that.

“Umm, pet, how bout I stay in your bed, yeah? Your mate ain’t here, why don’t you come keep Spike company?” The vampire purrs, the change in mood giving him whiplash, and is crowding him closer to the counter and Xander can’t stop the laugh that burst out of him.

Spike recoils, looking highly insulted, but at least he’s further away from Xander. “Oi!”

“Spike, you smell like you died in a puddle of liquor, its making me literally gag. How about you go take a shower, then we’ll see about sleeping in my bed.” The vampire grumbles before stalking off, his complaints tapering off as he stumbles up the stairs.

Xander is finishing his homework when he feels arms wrap around his waist and a tongue lick his neck. The vampire had been gone longer then he expected but he had smelled _really_ bad. “Smell better now, pet?” Spike purrs into his ear.

Xander turns in the vampire’s arms and takes a few sniffs of the still slightly wet neck. “Much. Couldn’t find any clothes?” The blond demon is completely naked, standing in the middle of the kitchen. Xander scratches his fingers through the gel free hair, causing the vampire to make a purring noise, and wonders at the softness of the bleached blond curls.

“Don’t need clothes for what I want to do with you. So how bout we head back up to that big ol’ bed.” Xander allows the kiss that comes after the words, sucking on the cool tongue that taste like toothpaste and he absently wonders whose toothbrush Spike used.

“How about you drink some blood first? I’m not even sure how much alcohol you have to drink for a vampire to get drunk but I imagine it’s a lot.” He can hardly imagine just how much it must take, the half dozen empty liquor bottles that had been scattered in the front of Spike’s car were probably a start; he had seen them when he had gone to shut the car door after Spike went to take a shower.

“Are you offering?” Spike nuzzles his neck but doesn’t bite because as much as the vampire will push, he knows Xander could tear him apart and is above him in their clan hierarchy. The barely there feeling of fangs sends shivers of pleasure down his spine, he _really enjoys_ being bitten.

“Maybe later. There’s plenty bags of human in the fridge, start with those. Then we can go up to bed, to sleep. You know the rules Spike.”

“Yeah, ‘Gelus wants to be the only one to have you but how about you have me, that wont count will it? Peaches let you sink your prick into his ass?” Xander can see just how tempting Spike could be; the sexy smirk making his cheekbones look sharp enough to cut, his voice gravel rough, and his gorgeous blue eyes dark with want.

“Yep.” Surprise flickers across Spike’s face for a second. “I’m his mate Spike, we’re equals. So, how about you heat up and drink some blood and finish sobering up.” Xander places a soft kiss on the vampire’s pouting lips before gently pushing him back.

“Must be losing my touch.” The bleach blond grumbles as he walks away.

The vampire ends up draining three bags, dipping bits of reheated left over waffle from breakfast he found in the fridge into the warmed blood. Spike eats a lot more solid food then Angel, his mate hardly ever eats anything solid except maybe blood-chocolate dipped strawberries from the restaurant in San Francisco. Soon, Angel wouldn’t have to order the blood chocolate from San Francisco because the Sunnydale restaurant was close to opening.

“That really taste good?” Xander asks as he watches Spike chew on a piece of blood soaked waffle. He takes the piece offered to him and from Spike’s expression the vampire didn’t expect him to try it.

Xander wrinkles his noise slightly at the taste. “Not really my thing. I prefer vampire blood.”

“Oh yeah, like biting ‘Gelus do you?” Spike leers at him and waggles his eyebrows causing Xander to chuckle at the absurd face.

“That and sometimes when we patrol together, I don’t always stake first.” This gets a surprised look from the blond vampire but Xander just shrugs, he isn’t ashamed.

The magic, _death magic_ Xander calls it, that saturates vampire blood and keeps the human body in pristine condition is very tasty and the primal part of him craves it. The older the vampire, the better their blood tasted and so far Angel was the oldest that he had gotten to drink. Sometimes when he and Angel are patrolling, he takes a bite and a few sucks of blood before staking the vampire and it always amps him up and causes arousal to throb through his body. Many times it has lead to either Xander or Angel on their knees or pressed up against the wall of a crypt. He hasn’t tried patrolling in his hyena form because he knows he would probably try to _eat_ a vampire, even Angel smells _good_ but also like **_mate_** so he isn’t _food/prey_.

“So, still feel like heading to bed? I have school in the morning.” Spike’s sexy smirk is back and he slithers out of his seat and grabs Xander’s hand pulling him down the hall and up the stairs to the master bedroom.

“Gonna lose the clothes, pet?” Spike asks as he spreads out on the bed, showing off the lean and tightly muscled body, the pale skin enticing in the soft light of the room. Xander shakes his head but strips off quickly and slides under the mocha and cream down comforter.

It takes seconds before he has an armful of vampire, Spike is already licking into his mouth and his bare body is sliding against Xander’s. He’s mostly passive till Spike makes a broke noise and pulls him on top of the vampire with strong arms. “Please, just please.” The words are whispered so quietly that even Xander’s enhanced senses nearly miss it. The teen has settled between Spike’s spread legs and the vampire’s cock is hard and pushing up against his stomach.

Xander’s shushes Spike as the vampire keeps making barely there pleading sounds and runs a calming hand down his side. He presses his body down onto Spike’s, giving the blond more friction and letting him take his pleasure. Xander starts sucking marks into Spike’s neck and giving it small nips but it isn’t till he breaks the skin with sharp teeth that he feels the vampire shudder through his orgasm below him.

His own cock is throbbing between them and he isn’t sure why that surprises him but slides it through the wetness from Spike’s come. He bares his own throat to Spike, the feeling of the vampire’s fangs sinking into his skin sending him over the edge, as well. Xander pushes up off the body below him and moves down to lick away the mixed proof of their pleasure from the pale stomach before sliding back up beside Spike and pulling the quiet vampire into his arms.

“Ya don’t think ‘Gelus will be mad, ya reckon?” Spike quietly asks, sounding more uncertain then Xander expects he means too.

“Nope. You’re his favored childe Spike, you have rights to our bed if we allow it.” Xander peppers a few kisses across a pale shoulder, before burying his nose in the back of Spike’s neck; Spike’s scent has the smallest hint of licorice, that he shares with Angel, but seems to hold a permanent smell of leather and smoke. Soft curls tickle his face from where Spike hadn’t put any gel in his hair after his shower.

He knows his mate was able to feel the _pleasure_ that was flowing across their mate bond and could feel the _interested curiosity_ that he got back from Angel.

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Xander wakes to the feeling of another body settling on the bed and sees Angel’s eyes glowing golden from over Spike’s shoulder. “Hey. Time’s it? Figured you’d be back earlier.” The words are slightly slurred but he’s sure his mate can figure it out.

“About 4am. When’d Spike get here?” Angel asks as he runs a hand up Xander’s arm that is wrapped around Spike and then along the other vampire’s side. Xander reaches out with his own hand and pulls his mate closer to the both of them, pressing Spike between the two of them.

“Around midnight, when I was doing homework. He was banging on the door, yelling, and entirely drunk. Dru left him for a chaos demon. I made him take a shower because he stunk and drink some blood to sober up.” Xander is a little more awake and enjoying the feel of Angel’s proprietary fingers as they trail across both his and Spike’s skin.

“You smell like each other. I like it.” The words are low and dark, the vampire’s arousal easily heard.

“Then do something bout it, Sire, or shut your gob and let us sleep.” Spike says, apparently awake, as he stretches between them. Angel strikes faster then Xander can track, his fangs sink roughly into the blond vampire’s neck causing Spike to make a shocked noise before pressing his body tighter against Angel’s. Vampires and their biting fetishes…though Xander can’t really say much as it is a huge kink for him as well. Probably a good thing since he’s the mate to a vampire.

Xander remolds his body against Spike’s back and watches his mate drink from his favored childe. Spike is now making pleased little growls and his body feels loose and melted between them. When Angel pulls back with a gasp, his lips are smeared with blood, and Xander leans over to kiss him, sharing the taste of Spike. Then he pulls back from the kiss to lick the blood away from the healing wound on the blonds’ neck.

The two vampires are sharing a viciously rough kiss and Xander can smell the blood from where their fangs are slicing through each other’s lips. A type of kiss that the mated pair hardly share because Angel worries about truly hurting and causing Xander pain, even if he heals almost as fast as a vampire and his own teeth can do a fair share of damage as well.

Xander’s own cock had hardened from the taste of Spike’s blood and watching the two kiss, so he presses it between Spike’s pert ass cheeks. Letting the underside of the head rub over Spike’s tight hole and wincing slightly at the rough friction before spitting in his hand and running it over his dick before pushing it back between the pale cheeks. The two vampires are pressing against each other almost frantically, like they are racing to their own completion, and growling into each other’s mouth.

The teen just let’s the rocking of Spike’s hips take him over the edge, his come easing the friction. He keeps his cock pressed between the tight cheeks and lets it drag his pleasure out till it’s almost painful.

The smell of sex and blood hangs heavy and thick in the air. Spike is still suckling on the bite Angel allowed him, savoring the taste of Sire’s blood. Angel runs a possessive hand over both of them before curling his fingers in Xander’s hair. They share a look over Spike’s head and their mate bond is overflowing with _affection_ and _satisfaction_. The blond had needed comfort and Xander was glad he had decided to allow Spike into their bed.

Xander is the one to finally get up and go to the bathroom for wash clothes. He wets two before using one to wipe himself off. As he slides back into bed, he tosses one to Angel and uses the other one he has to wipe his come off Spike’s lower back and from between his ass cheek.

Once they are clean enough they wont be stuck together with come when they wake up, they rearrange themselves slightly to go to sleep. Spike has his head laid on Angel’s broad chest and Xander is curled to his back again. Angel’s arm is under both of their heads and his fingers are scratching across Xander’s scalp.

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The next night both of the vampires are out and Xander is curled up on the couch watching television with Ace lounging in his lap getting scratches. The female cat wasn’t much of a kitten anymore at over a year old and had grown long and lanky. She looked even more like a miniature tiger then ever, her coat the same light grey with dark grey stripes and black tipped tail and her eyes had become an even lighter green color as she aged.

Xander has no homework or tests to study for and plans to take full advantage of that by vegging out in front of the TV all night. He has a few movies lined up and a large platter of drinks and snacks sitting beside him.

Angel had gotten Spike to help him track down Rack, again, and get them both inside the warlock’s place of ‘business’. They were out right now, ‘taking care’ of the warlock and Xander didn’t plan to ask any questions other then: is he dealt with? He figured they could do whatever they wished to the warlock and it wouldn’t bother him a bit because of what he had been doing to magic users and even demons. If they got around to torturing the man, he knew they would both come back horny unless they took care of it before they made it back to the mansion.

Xander felt the _dark satisfaction_ of a hunt gone well, near the end of the second movie, run through the mate bond and figured he would need to report that the warlock was taken care of and hope that Giles didn’t ask any questions, though he doubted the man would.

According to Giles, Amy was doing well and dealing with her lack of magic much better then the coven had expected her too. The young witch had decided that she had no intentions of moving back to Sunnydale and was planning to apply to colleges in or near San Francisco. Willow still kept in touch with her, as well, but not as much as she had before, still upset that Amy had planned to introduce her to Rack.

Willow had introduced another friend the two girls had in common, Michael, who also practiced magic. The teenager was often a target of the jocks because of his dark gothic appearance and obvious interest in the occult. The boy had claimed himself a warlock till Xander told him exactly what true warlocks did; draining natural magic from witches which could kill those the magic was stolen from. That he could become a mage later, if he wished to proclaim or pledge himself to a single god or goddess; such as Ethan did with Janus, making the man a chaos mage, but you had to give regular offerings to your pledged deity. Till then he was a witch or a practitioner.

Once Giles was aware there was another teenager dabbling in witchcraft, he had ordered Michael to join Willow and Xander’s weekly sessions with the watcher. Soon they’d be their own little coven, though Xander was far more cautious when it came to magic then the other two. Even as parts of it came more naturally to him, he seemed to have much more respect for the powers they were dabbling in and the consequences of misusing it. The way Willow seemed to want to carelessly experiment and play around with magic with little regard for the rules and fundamentals of the craft was dangerous.

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Angel and Xander were walking hand in hand through the cemetery under a barely risen moon, it was almost romantic if you overlooked the fact they were patrolling. Spike was out doing _something_ and likely getting into trouble.

Angel had been telling Xander about Morimoto’s plan to open his restaurant soon, which the teen was excited about, and how the both of them would be there for the opening night. It had taken a little longer then expected because Morimoto had some trouble deciding between two locations and then completely remodeling the inside of the one he had chosen. The restaurant would be named the same as the one in San Francisco, a symbol in the demon’s native tongue that translated closely to _Soul Food_. Which was pretty accurate since the demons read some kind of aura that allowed them to give customers exactly what they were craving. Morimoto’s own nuclear family would be helping him run it; his two mates and six children. Their species, Irnsheffs, seemed fairly prolific, as Morimoto was the fifth of ten children, and long lived, with their average lifespan over three hundred years.

Xander nudged Angel and gave him a look when it seemed like his mate was dithering on asking a question. He was fine with the companionable silence but the _disquiet_ coming from their bond was annoying.

“You don’t mind that Spike is sharing our bed still do you?” The previously mentioned vampire had stayed with them the last three days and usually slept pressed between the mated pair. Whatever plans Spike seemed to of had about getting Drusilla back looked to be pushed aside for the moment and he was enjoying the attention of his Sire and Sire’s Mate.

“Nope. I’m the one that invited him there and he’s your favored childe. Which means he is more then welcomed there as long as we both allow it and he needs the comfort. I’m still not sure about having actually sex-sex with him though the idea of it is hot. Seeing the two of you together really turns me on and there seems to be a lack of jealousy, which is surprising.” There had been more instances of frottage and hand jobs but still no penetrative sex, it seemed a line Angel and Xander had drawn for now but the teen didn’t think it would stay drawn.

“Because you know you have nothing to be jealous of, there isn’t anyone that could take your place in my life.” His mate told him as he reeled Xander in for a kiss. The teen was pushed back a few steps till he was sitting on a head stone and spread his legs to allow Angel closer. They kissed till both of them heard the scratching and breaking of wood.

It took a few minutes before the new vampire pushed up through the dirt and seemed surprised when Angel gave it a hand to pull it up completely. The newly risen fledge’s attention was drawn to Xander and his heartbeat but when both of them gave a vicious growl the vampire flinched back. Even this young it could sense stronger predators and it showed strong survival instincts by stumbling a few steps back from them. Angel had taken to actually asking any newly risen vampires who had sired them and if they didn’t know a name, if they could remember what they looked like. Some tried to refuse but they were no match for a master vampire like Angel.

This one seemed confused by the question but described the vampire who had changed him, the same that had changed at least three others in the past two weeks. Willy had said he didn’t know a vampire by that description when Angel had asked. Xander was positive the little weasel was lying and was going to make him regret it later.

When Angel was done getting the information, he pulled the vampire close and offered it his neck but before it could sink it’s fangs into the master vampire it disappeared in a burst of dust. Quick and as painless as he could make the death.

“We really got to get our hands on this vampire. This is his fourth minion and those are only the ones we’ve caught.” Xander complained as they continued walking through the cemetery. So far since Angel had become Master of Sunnydale the fledge population had decreased drastically and the master vampire had only approved of one siring in over a year. A vampire had wanted to change their human lover and the human had agreed. Angel had allowed it as long as the older, barely master status, vampire kept their new childe under control. As far as Xander knew, both of the vampire’s drank either bagged blood or from willing donors.

“We will and when I do, I’m gonna make him regret going against me. I figure it’s time to make another example of what happens to those who oppose me.” Angel growled out, still in game face. The dark beauty of it always caught Xander by surprise, he loved to run his fingers over the brow ridges and press kisses to the fang filled mouth.

“Good. Come on lets head home and see if Spike is back.”

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The phone was ringing when they made it back to the mansion and Xander had to run to get it.

“Hello? Hello?” Few people had this number and usually only called if something was the matter.

“Xander, come get Spike before I shove a stake through him.” Buffy’s tone indicated that she was about two second from doing just that.

“What? Where are you at?” Xander’s confusion was clear.

“At home, where Spike is having hot chocolate with my mother. My mother, who is defending him. Come get him or I’ll get Faith and we’ll take care of him.”

“Well, at least you know he doesn’t mean your mother any harm if he was able to come inside.” The teen tried to placate. Spike was such a strange vampire but his loyalty had probably been completely won over by Ms. Summers’ hot chocolate.

“I don’t care.” The call ended with a beep.

Xander turned to Angel, who was just shaking his head. “I believe we have to go pick up your wayward childe before he gets turned to dust by an irate Buffy. I knew he wouldn’t stay out of trouble unsupervised but at least he waited till I told Giles that he was in town.” Xander had told the watcher that morning that Spike had arrived drunk and upset over Drusilla leaving him, thankfully the older man hadn’t asked exactly when the vampire had arrived.

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When they make it to Buffy’s, the girl answers the door before almost dragging them into the kitchen and pointing at Spike. “Make him leave.”

The bleach blond vampire was trying to hide a shit-eating grin behind a large mug that smelled like chocolate heaven and made Xander want to ask for a cup. “But she gave me hot chocolate and it has the little marshmallows. We were just talking, wasn’t gonna hurt her slayer. I told ya that.”

Ms. Summers huffed. “And I told you, Buffy, that I invited him in and if I might remind you that I am the parent and this is my house. Also, I am perfectly aware of Spike being a vampire but that doesn’t mean he doesn’t need a mother’s advice. He was able to enter which Xander and Mr. Giles assured me could only happen if the person meant no harm and he is unable to commit any violence, as well.” This obviously hadn’t been the first time she had said this.

Buffy’s eye was twitching and looked seconds from stomping her foot and throwing a temper tantrum. Xander hoped to head it off. “How about, Spike finishes his hot chocolate and then we take him home with us. You don’t have to stay, as the two of us are completely capable of handling Spike.”

The blond girl looked sorely tempted before shaking her head. “I’m not leaving my mother with him and he better hurry or I’ll find a way around that no-violence spell.” Xander didn’t bother correcting her that the spell would have allowed her a certain measure of violence as this was her home. He just nodded and took a seat at the table and quickly agreed to his own cup of hot chocolate from Joyce.

It was almost a half-hour later and the very end of Buffy’s tolerance that they all left. Xander tugging Spike behind him after saving him from a stake to the back by Buffy when the vampire gave Ms. Summers, or Joyce as she insisted they call her, a hug and mimed biting her. Xander was almost positive that the bleach and gel that Spike’s used for his hair rotted his brain.

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They are back at the mansion when Spike makes a sudden noise before casually telling Xander that he had kidnapped the Red Witch earlier in the day and that took him less then a second to figure out.

“Spike, where is Willow and why the hell did you kidnap her?” The teen made no attempt to keep the frustration out his voice.

“Well I thought about using a love spell to get Dru back, yeah, but that was before I talked to Joyce. So, I went to the magic shop to ask one of them because I knew you wouldn’t help me and I couldn’t get in your little mojo room. Saw her there asking about supplies for a spell and figured she would be a better option. I’ve never had much luck with mojo in the first place. That was always Dru’s thing. I didn’t even kill the little shop assistant and that’s about a tradition among the vampires around here.” Spike almost seemed like he expected a congratulations for not killing someone but he supposed it was a feat for a non-souled vampire. Xander was ever thankful that he had found a locking spell in one of the grimoires that Angel had gotten him and used it on the door to his little ‘mojo room’, as Spike called it.

“And where exactly is she? If you hurt her, you’re going to regret it.” Xander’s patience is running out and if there is a single hair on Willow’s head that is hurt, he will take it out of Spike’s hide.

“Didn’t hurt her. Knew she was under your protection, didn’t I. Just told her to follow me or else, she caved simple like, and locked her in the basement of the warehouse, me and Dru stayed in.”

Xander just shook his head and called Oz and told the werewolf where to meet him. He knew they would be there sooner, as they lived much closer to that side of town, but he imagined Willow would want her boyfriend after the day she had.

It was only a few minutes later they were pulling up beside the old warehouse and Xander told both of the vampires to stay with the jeep and wait for Oz. Willow probably didn’t want to see Spike and was just as likely not to want to see Angel.

He hurried through the half broken door and down the rickety stairs. Willow had been here for over four hours now and was probably terrified. “Willow?”

“Xander! Oh gods, Xander. Spike kidnapped me. How did you find me? Did you use a locator spell cause I’ve been wanting to try one.” The red haired girl had a manacle around her ankle that was bolted to the floor and was sitting on an old mattress. She had yet to stop babbling.

“I know. He told me.” Cutting Willow off.

“Told you?” Willow asked quietly, the flow of her words cut off, as Xander broke the rusted chain, as he didn’t have the key for the shackle and hoped Spike did. He pulled her into his arms and hugged her tight, glad to see that there wasn’t any physical damage.

“Yep. Picked him up from Buffy’s, where he was having hot chocolate with her mom. When we made it back to the mansion he told us that he had kidnapped you and planned for you to cast a love spell before he changed his mind.” Xander pulled back some from the hug and tucked a stray strand of hair behind her ear. “You okay, other then being kidnapped and scared? He didn’t do anything else?”

“I’m-. I’m fine, really. He didn’t actually put a hand on me except to put that chain on.” Willow assured him and gave a small smile. Xander could hear Oz getting near the stairs.

“Oz is here.” That seemed to surprise Willow and caused her to draw back from him. “I called him right after I found out, figured you might want your boyfriend. Be careful on the stairs!” He yelled the last part out, so Oz could hear him.

The werewolf melted out of the dark and headed straight for Willow, Xander handed her over when the shorter male was close enough. “Oz.” Willow gasped, as she buried her face in his neck.

“Okay, lets get out of here. Oz can take you back home.” Xander said as he headed back to the stairs and waited on the still hugging couple.

He then leads them out of the warehouse; only to find Angel and Spike surrounded by close to ten vampires. Which Xander figured was his fault because he had wondered what else could happen this night and the Hellmouth wasn’t going to let him get away with that. He knew he had jinxed himself into an even worse evening and it had started so well, with a sort of romantic walk in the moonlight. Xander pushes Willow and Oz towards the musician’s van and goes to join the fight.

A few had turned to him when he had come out of the warehouse and when one tried to move towards Willow and Oz, he burst into action. He snapped the first vampire’s neck, which wouldn’t kill it, before pulling a stake from a cargo pocket, never taken out after their earlier patrol, and shoving it into the vampire’s heart. The vampire disappeared in a quick burst of burning dust before two more were on him. Neither vampire were well versed in fighting but they were both fairly strong and were coming at him from two sides. Xander traded a few punches before being able to work them into a better position.

He was able to catch one vampire as it rushed at him with a tight grip around it’s neck and let claws grow curved and sharp from his nails into it’s neck. Then let the vampire’s own momentum carry him past and into the other vampire causing Xander’s claws to rip his neck out. The last one was too easy as it had stopped in surprise as the other vampire had burst into dust as it collided with him. Xander shoved the stake into it’s heart with more force then necessary, his fist breaking the vampire’s chest bone before it disappeared.

Angel and Spike had dispatched their own group of vampires with brutal efficiency, only one was left and Spike had knocked that one out and snapped both of it’s leg. Neither had played with their prey, which was normal when the two fought together, but it was always amazing watching them fight. Xander had only caught a few glimpses of them during the fight, occupied with his own, but they were like poetry in motion, just much more deadly.

“Why are you keeping one?” Xander asked as he walked over to them and heard Willow and Oz get out of the werewolf’s van, even though he had told them to leave.

“That’s the vampire that’s been turning people and I plan to have a few words with him.” Angel told him as he gave the unconscious vampire a hard nudge with him foot, turning the vampire onto his back and letting Xander see that he did indeed match what they had been told by the newly risen fledges they had caught. The teen figures that the vampire is in for a rough time before he’s staked.

“Lenny, an old minion of mine and getting above his station. He didn’t seem pleased I was back in town.” Spike told them as he found some rope in the Jeep and started tying the unconscious vampire up before chunking him, none-too-gently, back to the ground.

“You guys okay?” Oz asked, as he and Willow came up to them.

“We’re fine but I’m pretty sure I told you two to leave.”

“We didn’t want to just leave you with all those vampires. I figured maybe Oz could run one over if you needed help.” Willow said before glaring at Spike, who just smirked back.

“Sorry bout all this Red. Don’t need you no more. Decided against using mojo on Dru and plan to try to win her back the old fashioned way. Torture her till she wants me again.” The last statement makes both Oz and Willow’s eyebrows shoot up.

“Alright, I’m ready for this night to be over. Spike get that manacle off her ankle. Then Oz can take Willow home and I’ll see you both at school next week.” Xander tells the other two teens before they all exchange goodbyes, while Spike pulls a key from one of his many pockets and with a sharp click the pieces of metal fall off Willow. Willow still sending glares at Spike who is just smirking away and twirling the pieces of metal in his hands, as she gets into Oz’s van.

Angel and Spike decide to stay at the warehouse, they plan to get answers out of the captured vampire. Xander supposes he would like to know why the vampire, Lenny, was turning so many people recently and why they came after Spike but plans to leave that to Angel and Spike. Those two have torture down to an art form and Xander is tired and ready to curl up into bed. He gives them both a kiss before hoping into the Jeep and driving off.

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Spike leaves the next night. He plans to try to get Drusilla back one more time, by torturing her, and if that doesn’t work, he wants to make sure her chaos demon is treating her right. Then the master vampire plans to come back and stay with them…permanently. Spike leaves with a swirl of recently dry-cleaned black duster because Zia refused to allow it to stay in the house otherwise. The vampire screeches out of the driveway with his music blaring and horn blowing as he pulls out in front of another car.

Xander isn’t sure if he should feel dread at the thought of Spike coming to stay with them permanently or relieved that Angel will have some more trusted back up. While Xander holds the position of mate of the Master of Sunnydale and, technically, the position of second, he knows Spike would be a better choice for Angel’s second. The bleach blond vampire is much more aware of Sunnydale’s underbelly and has more connections to its seedier side. Plus, Spike can be out all night with Angel when he has business to attend to because he doesn’t have school in the morning and it’s starting to feel like they are going to need even more heavy hitters soon because something big is coming.

Angel and Spike had found out that Lenny had been hired by someone for the mayor, to take care of Spike, and that the man wasn’t pleased that Mr. Trick or Larconis had been killed; even if that meant he didn’t have to pay tribute to the demon anymore. When they had finished with the vampire, Angel had stung him up outside of Willy’s bar as a message to those who thought to cross the Master of Sunnydale. The vampire had been barely alive and mutilated, Lenny probably welcomed the sun when it finally rose.

Mayor Richard Wilkins was becoming a bigger player or had already been a big player and was just now becoming visible. The increased activities from the mayor showed that the man had some plan coming to fruition and they all needed to know what it was. Xander planned to have Giles and Willow help him start researching the mayor when they all got back to school Monday. The research had kept getting postponed this past week for one reason or the other.

“You know I think all your childer are crazy or at least the two I’ve meet. What about the other one or two you have, they gonna pop out of the woodwork sometime?” Xander asked his mate, as he leaned back into Angel and listened as Spike’s horrible music faded into the distance.

“No, I doubt it and there’s two. Penn was the first I ever changed, when I was only a few decades old. He considered me his true father but he later wandered from us; Darla, Drusilla, Spike, and myself as we made our name as the Scourge of Europe. There was just over 70 years before I turned Dru after him and we would hunt together and he took up many of…my methods. I hadn’t seen him in almost a decade when I was cursed and haven’t seen him since.” Angel didn’t use the name Angelus’ to refer to his demon as often as he once had. They headed back inside when neither could hear Spike’s car any longer.

“The last I turned was after I had my soul during WWII. Sam Lawson, an American soldier, and I only turned him so he would survive and be able to fix the damaged submarine we were trapped in. It was that Demon Research Initiative I told you about that ‘asked’ me to save the American crew that had captured the German submarine. Spike had been captured with two other vampires and the German’s had planned to use them for research. I honestly don’t know what happened to him. I couldn’t handle the fact I had turned someone else into the monster I saw myself as and just left him once we made it back to shore. Couldn’t stake him but couldn’t be near him, either.” The vampire’s regrets over his last childe was easily heard and Xander wondered if the abandoned fledge was still alive.

“Maybe we can look for him and see if he’s still alive.” Xander offered his mate and got a small nod in return. The teen wondered if being turned by a souled vampire would change anything or if he would be as crazy and vicious as Angel’s other childer.

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When Willow told everyone on Monday about Spike kidnapping her, no one was pleased with Xander and didn’t completely believe that Spike wouldn’t have truly hurt Willow because she was under his protection. Although, they were relieved when he told them that the vampire had already left to go get Dru back.

He had to listen to Willow and Buffy complain about the ‘bleached hair menace’, as they had dubbed him, for over an hour. This, also, seemed like the first time in a week that both of the slayers agreed on something, as Faith had been distant from Buffy since the rogue watcher deal.

He failed to mention that the vampire was more then likely going to be back and figured he would deal with that when it happened. They would probably all come down on his head again when they realized the vampire was going to become at least a semi-permanent resident of Sunnydale. Maybe, Xander shouldn’t be already counting on Spike coming back but he had little belief that the vampire was going to sway Dru back to him; even with torture. Spike might not be the most reliable back-up but the demon didn’t want an apocalypse.

They were going to need all the help they could find with the mayor, even if they didn’t know exactly what the man was up to; they were all smart enough to know that it was going to be something big. Not only that but Giles was still rightly concerned about the activity of the First and they had wondered if the two were somehow connected.

Xander thought the best way to deal with the mayor would be to kill him, now, before waiting till the man’s plans came to fruition but wasn’t stupid enough to put forth that plan of action. He knew that was callous and that he shouldn’t be thinking like that about a human but a big part of him saw it as the most efficient way to deal with the situation.

The primal and the ghost of the soldier’s memories were in agreement and Xander had even began to make tentative plans to do so. The soldier that had possessed him, left him with in-depth knowledge of weapons and how to use them and he figured something like a high powered sniper rifle wouldn’t be something Mayor Wilkins would be suspecting.

He had already made plans to sneak back into the military base, outside of Sunnydale, and ‘acquire’ a sniper rifle that would work best. Currently he was waffling between a couple, such as: the Harris M96, but he thought it was much too large for the job and wouldn’t be easy to transport and was not likely to be in the base’s weapons inventory, or the more realistic choice; the Stoner SR-25, which had been in use by the military since 1990, was probably a perfect gun for the job and would be most likely to be available.

Xander still hadn’t brought this idea up to Angel but he would as soon as he was sure he could get his hands on an appropriate rifle. Then a few days of reconnaissance and he would be ready to, hopefully, take a major player off the board; eliminate the threat before it could strike against them and become a bigger threat.

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Angel couldn’t help but appreciate the way his mate looked in the black slacks, dark grey dress shirt, and black casual suit jacket. Xander’s broad shoulders and trim waist were emphasized by the perfect cut of the jacket; the teasing glimpse of bare chest from the top two open buttons on the shirt was captivating. His mate was growing into a stunning man and he felt privileged to be able to see it, that _this_ young man belonged solely to him. The demon side of him absolute in it’s possession of it’s mate but just as Xander belonged to him, he belonged in return and he _reveled_ in it.

The master vampire was aware Xander was able to sense his perusal as he came down the stairs and the young man gave him a wicked smirk that made him want to forget their evening out and strip those clothes right back off. Although, he wasn’t sure his mate would choose sex with him over Morimoto’s food or the restaurant’s opening night. Especially since they had spent the last few hours in bed, after Xander had spent the previous three nights with the werewolf.

Xander gave him an equally blatant appraisal, taking in Angel’s own dark grey slacks and black silk dress shirt that had the sleeves rolled up to the elbow to show off pale forearms. Watching those beautiful brown eyes with a green starburst be eaten up by blown black pupils because of his mate’s attraction to him always sent a shiver down the vampire’s spine.

Angel pulled Xander close for a kiss, slow and deep, one that showed their easy familiarity with each other and barely banked passion. The heat his young mate put off, always drew the master vampire even closer; wanting to feel it sink into his own cool skin. The heady, mouth-watering, scent that was so strong, Angel could taste it as he kissed across the young man’s jaw to just under his ear and couldn’t help but take a small taste; flicking his tongue out just for a second.

The warm cinnamon, chocolate, fresh earth smell that held a hint of something _wild_ and _untamable_ made Angel just want to bury his face against his mate’s perfect neck and breath till the world around him disappeared.

“A ghrá geal.” (My bright love.) Angel whispered into an ear as he continued to lay light kisses along a strong jaw.

“Mpenzi wangu.” (My love.) Came the returned endearment in Swahili, that rolled off Xander’s tongue perfectly. The teen had only started learning the language near the end of the summer but was picking it up quickly and using it more often in conversation. “Basi! We’ll be late and we promised we’d be there before the doors opened tonight.” (Stop!)

Angel reluctantly drew back after giving one last chaste kiss to soft pink lips, that were still kiss swollen from earlier in the evening. “I canna wait to take ya back to bed. I plan to keep ya dere.” The words an enticing promise, that the master vampire was more then willing to keep.

The sultry laugh that Xander gave was enchanting and the neck that was bared, as the teen tilted his head back, was riveting. “We just spent hours in bed and you’re already making plans to go back.” The young man said when his laughter finally died down. “And put those eyes away, we have places to be.” Xander added when he saw golden demon eyes staring at him with such intense, possessive, focus it felt like everything was stripped bare for his mate to see.

Xander was surprised they made it to the restaurant at all, much less only a few minutes late. It was still close to half-an-hour before the doors were opened for the Grand Opening event.

Angel had been unwilling to let him out of bed till the last minute to get dressed and ready for the evening. He knew that spending three nights away from their bed always put the demon in a handsy, possessive mood. Even if they only spent a few hours wrapped in each others arms sleeping some nights because Angel had business to attend too, it never affected the vampire as much as when he spent three entire nights away from their home and bed.

He at least tried to get a couple hours sleep after long nights shifted and running through the forest; though he wasn’t sure that Angel appreciated how strongly he always smelled of Oz during full moon nights, even after a shower. He had been seriously considering inviting his mate to hunt with him and Oz, he knew the werewolf wouldn’t go after the master vampire. Even now, Angel had a large hand splayed across his back possessively.

They greeted Morimoto as they walked into the restaurant, the tall demon welcoming them enthusiastically. This was the first time the mated pair had been allowed to see the inside of the completely remodeled building and it was amazing. The building itself was set apart from it’s neighbors and was close to the ocean and Xander had been able to see a part of an outdoor area from the parking lot.

The walls were lightly-colored stacked stone and there was a wall of windows on one side of the building, facing towards the nearby ocean and doors that opened out onto a covered outside seating area. The large dining room was sectioned off into three main areas; a few smaller private sections that had a few small tables or one large one each, the middle area that also housed the large dark wood bar, and the last section that was by the massive windows and doors that lead to the patio area.

The interior partitions were stone walls that had glass windows that were filled with flickering candles; so that while it broke up the massive space it didn’t make any section seem completely isolated. The bar and tables were a dark wood that gleamed in the abundance of intimate lighting. Behind the bar was a gorgeous shelf display of liquors and a glass door that lead to a wine room, that housed the restaurants wine selection. There were large wooden beams stretched across the high ceiling and unique jewel tone crackled glass pendant lights, that gave off a soft warm light.

Xander took it all in with wide eyes, remembering the bland white-walled empty space that had been here previously. The muted smell of food and sound of activity in the kitchen blended with waiters checking tables to make sure they were all set correctly.

“This is incredible.” He offered the head chef and owner, an awed tone to his voice.

Morimoto just nodded his head with a large smile and continued on to show them the outside seating area. This space was covered by a massive arbor, that had thick beams of dark wood crisscrossing and covered with some dark green leafy vine that had smatterings of white flowers. There was an iron fence surrounding the entire area that was also covered in the same type of leafy vine, giving it a private feel. Though on the ocean side it was much lower to allow customers to view it as they ate. There was a barely there scent given off by the flowers that was entirely pleasing. Barely noticeable outside heaters, gave off a gentle heat; though it was mostly unnecessary as it was close to seventy degrees outside, even with it being the first week of December.

Once they were back inside, the demon went on to explain that the glass was special ordered from an LA based company that made vampire-safe windows; that completely blocked UV. Xander had wondered about the massive wall of windows but figured most daylight challenged diners wouldn’t be out till the sun set, anyways. Angel was interested in the company and got the name, so he could look into them for possibly replacing the windows at the mansion. Even though the master vampire was no longer combustible due to sunlight, Spike was and the vampire was likely to be calling the mansion home soon.

Also, there was a secured sewer access set in a small warded room of the building. This would allow any demons who couldn’t walk down the street without attracting attention, a safe route into the restaurant.

When the tour was done, Xander and Angel were seated at a prominent table in the center dining area. The doors were opened shortly after and the restaurant was soon filled with the muted sounds of conversation.

Their first appetizer course came quickly to the table; the first of many dishes to come from the kitchen that night for the packed restaurant. The appetizer plate was little bowls of thinly sliced raw meats, a variety of sauces and broths, and grilled seasoned bread. Xander’s main course was still sizzling blackened prawns that were drizzled in a sweet but very spicy sauce with slices of bell peppers and a side of something called maize porridge that was drenched with a creamy coconut sauce. They complemented each of so perfectly that the teen thought he could eat this for the rest of his life and again, he was given a glass of raw milk. Then dessert was something called malva pudding; it was a cake with a soft spongy, caramelized texture covered in a slightly fruity and sweet sauce, and served with a scoop of vanilla bean ice cream.

There was only the minimum amount of talking as they ate and anything they did say, was about the amazing food. When they were both finished, Xander leaned back in his chair and patted his pleasantly full stomach.

“That was perfect. I would suggest coming here for dinner every night but Zia might kill me if she thought I was insulting her food. Though I plan to take full advantage while we’re still in Sunnydale.”

“Still in Sunnydale?” The question made Xander pause and go over what he had just said. Neither had really said anything but Xander had assumed that they wouldn’t be staying here much past graduation.

“Yep. I know we haven’t talked about it but I got the impression that we might not be hanging around much after I graduate.” Xander figured having serious talks while so well fed and in a good mood, probably wasn’t a bad idea.

Angel seemed to consider this for a few moments, as they sat in companionable silence. “I had thought about us leaving but I don’t know to where and I suppose we don’t want to move too far so we can be on hand if something major happens here. I don’t know what I’m going to do about my position as Master of Sunnydale, although I have been considering giving it to Spike if he didn’t want to move with us.”

“I haven’t really thought about the where either but I don’t really care. LA, probably wouldn’t be so bad and we’ll still be fairly close. And, I want to go on a road trip or something after I graduate.” Xander smiled at Angel and figured the vampire could work out that less then subtle idea of a graduation gift.

Before Angel could do more then nod, Morimoto greeted them as he came up to the table and set a small box in front of Angel; one that most likely held the blood chocolates that the vampire was addicted too. They both complimented the chef for a wonderful meal and talked for a few minutes before he had to head back into the kitchen. It was only Morimoto’s second appearance of the night but the demon’s two mates had been talking to many of the diners throughout the evening.

The mated pair gave up their table and headed to the bar for a final drink before they headed home. The conversation from early put on hold for now, as they chatted with one of Morimoto’s youngest; who was one of the bartenders.

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Xander lay awake in bed and watched his mate’s troubled sleep, he reached out a hand to run a finger over furrowed brows when Angel flinched back from his touch. The master vampire’s behavior over the last few days had become erratic and Xander was highly worried. Angel had come as close to _forbidding_ him from seeing Buffy or Faith, as he could, without actually saying those exact word. Any mention of the slayers, even in the most passing way, caused the master vampire to growl and give off an almost palpable sense of hate and fear.

The primal enhanced teenager had tried to enter Angel’s dreams but hadn’t been able to and then had tried to pull Angel into his own mindscape but again had failed. Xander’s own dreams, when he wasn’t sitting under a tree looking over an African plain with an ancient primal sitting beside him and trying to pull Angel into his mind, were filled with dark eye-less shapes and chanting that made his skin crawl and the dark, oily shadow from before seemed to linger on the edges.

Angel had hardly let him out of his sight since Christmas vacation had started and if he went to the Bronze, his mate kept himself plastered to Xander for the entire time. Xander wasn’t complaining about his mate wanting to be close but he knew that something was seriously wrong. When Xander asked about it Angel would just distract him and tell him not to worry, which made him worry even more because it was unlike his mate to keep something from him.

He had felt fear, grief, rage, and a swirl of other emotions start leaking across their bond just a couple days ago. Xander had noticed his mate would become distracted and would glance or even stare at an empty space but those times were when the emotions leaked across their bond the strongest.

Xander startled when Angel shot up in bed, in full game face, before looking around wildly and when he saw Xander he just stared for a few moments, frozen. Then the vampire just launched himself at Xander and wrapped him in a hug so tight, Xander couldn’t breath and felt his ribs creak in protest. “You’re alive, you’re alive. I won’t let them take you from me. I’ll kill them. I’ll protect you.”

The fervently whispered words made the alarm Xander had been feeling, ratchet up even more. He just held Angel to himself and murmured back comforting words and sounds. Xander didn’t know how long it took for the vampire to finally release the death grip he had and slowly move back.

When Xander finally got Angel to explain what was the matter and what had been going on, he became immensely worried and rushed Angel to get dressed so they could go to Giles. The teen hoped that the watcher would be able to help. His mate’s new visitors of unseen ghosts of dead people and vampires, warning the master vampire that the slayers planned to torture and kill Xander if he didn’t kill them first, wasn’t something Xander could handle alone.

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When they knocked on Giles’ door, it was barely even dark out, Xander just hoped the man was home, as he hadn’t called ahead. As the door opened, Angel launched himself forward and it was only Xander’s arms around the vampire that stopped him from ripping apart Buffy. His mate was snarling and promising to kill the girl in the most painful way possible.

Xander just tried to sooth Angel and get him to stop struggling, promising his mate that the two slayers weren’t going to hurt him. Which would have been easier if they weren’t both in the doorway with stakes.

“Look, I need you two to back up! Something is wrong and you two are making it worse. I have to talk to Giles.” Both girls protested letting him into the house and were adamant about not letting Angel in.

“Angel?” Xander wasn’t exactly sure what is was about his tone that got the enraged vampire’s attention but blazing golden eyes were turned to him. “I love you and I’m sorry.”

“What?” Instead of answering, Xander just laid his hand over Angel’s heart and whispered a few words. The previously furious demon dropped to the ground like a stone without a sound. It was the first time he had used the spell he had found in one of the darker grimoires but it was very effective. The spell allowed him to knock out anyone, for a short period of time, as long as he was within touching distance. He could feel the drain from the large amount of magic it took sweep over him.

“What just happened?” Came from three different directions.

“I knocked him out. Now I need to speak to you, Giles. Something is really wrong and I think it has to do with the First.”

The watcher made both Faith and Buffy move out of the doorway and Xander lifted Angel over his shoulder and dropped him on a couch, the vampire completely limp. When Buffy took a step forward to help, Xander couldn’t stop the growl. “You will stay back. I’m not having you near my mate when he can’t defend himself.”

The swirling emotions that had burst through the bond when Angel had seen the two slayers were so strong they were affecting him. The grief and rage so powerful they had almost taken him to his knees. He shuts his eyes for a few seconds to just breath and be thankful that the emotions stopped leaking over their mate bond when he had knocked Angel out.

Then Xander explains exactly what Angel had told him, about the not-real visitors that had been telling the vampire that Buffy and Faith were planning to torture and kill Xander. When he was done with his story, Giles told him about the dreams that both girls were having. Xander mentioned his own dreams of eyeless shadows that were chanting and the darker shadow he believed represented the First.

The two had been dreaming of the same eyeless beings, that Giles had identified as Bringers, and about Angel killing Buffy and Faith. This made the knot of dread in Xander’s stomach tighten even further, especially now that the First’s involvement was confirmed.

It’s only a stroke of luck that Buffy remembers a large circle of dead Christmas trees, after Giles mentions nothing can live above or below them, from when her and her mom had bought a tree a few days earlier. The two slayers leave to, hopefully, kill the Bringers and stop the First’s influence over Angel.

Xander just sat on the floor in front of the couch and ran a hand through Angel’s hair. It was only a few moments later that the vampire started stirring slightly and slurred, “Xander?”

“Hey. You feeling less crazy?” Xander knows the Buffy and Faith haven’t had time to even make it to the Christmas tree lot.

“What? What happened? Where are-?” Angel jumps up looking around.

“Easy, Nyonda. Buffy and Faith are going after the First or at least some of it’s Bringers. They are the ones who are causing you to see things and trying to get you to believe they will hurt me. Hopefully, when the Bringers are dead the visions will stop.” (Beloved.) Xander pulls Angel back down and continues to run a hand through the vampire’s messy hair, gel-less and still mussed from sleep.

The three sit in silence and they see Angel try to ignore whatever is talking to him but when the vampire flinches back, they are all on alert.

“It changed. Showed it’s real face before disappearing. Maybe the girls took care of the Bringers.” Angel informs them and then answers a few questions Giles has.

They wait another hour before Buffy and Faith return. Xander knew they were able to take care of the Bringers because Angel had relaxed more and more as time had gone on.

The slayers recount their story of killing the First’s priests and the appearance of the First Evil or at least some manifestation of it.

This sends chills down all their spines because none of them have faced something of the magnitude of the First. Which isn’t something they can kill, as it is the manifestation of all evil in the world. Xander knows there must be balance between good and evil, that one could not significantly outweigh the other without there being severe consequences; the universe would correct itself in some way. Primals understood balance; that there must be both death and life, light and shadow, good and evil.

Xander and Angel don’t stay much later, after the slayer’s tell their story, and head home. Angel had gotten more and more tense the longer they were in the girls company and was putting off ‘I want to kill them’ vibes, even if they are no longer so strong. The First’s use of Xander being in danger from Buffy and Faith was very effective. Giles had said the being was a master manipulator and it is already widening the cracks between the mated pair and the two slayers.

The pair wish them all a Merry Christmas and head home. The drive is quiet, the only noise the soft Christmas music playing on the radio.

At home they decide to curl up in the ‘sun room’ and watch TV. Xander had picked a tree the first week of vacation and it’s simple white lights are twinkling and shining off the silver and gold ornaments that adorn the tree. The teen sips a hot chocolate as a Charlie Brown movie plays.

It’s almost dawn when snow starts to fall and they are able to see it out of the large wall of windows. Xander doesn’t think he has ever seen snow in real life and he and his mate go outside to feel it on their skin.

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It’s New Years eve when Spike returns and as expected, without Drusilla. Xander and Angel already have plans to go to _Soul Food_ and invite the morose vampire to join them. If their food can’t cheer someone up, then nothing can.

After a wonderful meal and a glass of champagne as midnight struck, they head out. Spike talks them into going down to the docks for a party.

When they find the massive warehouse, music and shouts are pouring out of the open door. All the windows are heavily painted or papered over, as not a bit of light is coming out of them. The door is guarded by an eight foot tall demon with a spiked tail and dark blue skin, who greets them all and seems to know Spike.

“Master Angelus, Consort Alexander, Master Spike.” After greeting them he starts explaining about the fights that are still happening, now an open floor to any comer. It takes Xander a second to realize this must be some kind of demon fight club.

When they enter the door and go down a short hallway it opens to a massive area filled with bodies and has a packed second floor viewing area, as well. The smell of alcohol, sweat, and blood assaults Xander’s enhanced senses. The crowd parts for Angel and Spike, some flinching back to avoid touching them, and Xander walks in their wake.

Xander gets the most stares, as many of the demons haven’t ever seen him before. He gives the primal part of him more freedom and his walk turns into a prowl, his animal side becoming more apparent. Most of the demons won’t meet his eyes as he stalks through the crowd and to the center of the warehouse. They can sense a stronger predator, plus they are all aware of what Angel would do to them if they offend or attack him. Xander is positive they fear Angel much more then him, as they have either seen or heard of the master vampire’s viciousness.

The center of the area has a large cage set up, much bigger then any fight ring Xander has seen, where two demons are currently fighting. They are both mostly humanoid looking, except for their skin color and rows of piranha-like teeth. The fight is brutal and quickly over once one of the fighters takes a large ripping bite out of the other’s shoulder. The one who was bitten, loses use of his arm and is quickly taken down to the cement floor and he quickly taps out.

The next fight is the winner of the previous one and a four foot tall, dwarf looking demon. Piranha-mouth tries to get a few bites in but the dwarf-like demon’s skin is too tough and piranha-mouth is mostly too fast for the shorter opponent. The fight ends in a draw and they both leave the ring.

Xander isn’t really surprised when Spike is called up next, his opponent is another vampire. The fight is fast and brutal, the other vampire quickly realizing he doesn’t have a chance and looks like he is about to tap out before he is caught by Spike and his arm is ripped off. The fights can be to the death if either party wishes but usually aren’t from what Spike had been telling him the previous fight. Spike lets the vampire finally tap out and gives a smirk to the crowd.

The blond vampire fights a few more opponents and wins each match before leaving the cage. A roll of cash is shoved into Spike’s hand by a demon and the vampire hides it away in one of the many pockets on his leather coat.

Xander asks Spike to get him into a fight, once the vampire is back with them. He offers his neck to the slightly worse for wear vampire and a quick kiss once Spike has taken a few sips of his blood. Angel ends up offering the same, though their kiss is much more involved, and it shows the crowd that Spike is indeed the favored childe of the Master of Sunnydale.

A couple fights later, Xander enters the ring. He had taken off both the dress shirt and v-neck he had underneath and proudly shows off the blood red tattoo over his heart that marks him as Angel’s mate. His jeans are tighter then he would like but if Spike can fight in ones that look poured on, he can manage.

His first fight is against a vampire, who smells like they are barely a decade old and looks terrified when Xander walks into the cage. Xander doesn’t bother drawing it out because he wants a better opponent, one that will give him a true fight. The vampire quickly taps out when Xander pins him to the ground and almost flees in terror when the teen lets his opponent up.

The second fight is against a master vampire that is probably close to Angel’s age, though Xander can tell he isn’t near as powerful. At first, Xander just plays with his opponent and mostly just blocks and matches the vampire’s strength, giving small cuts with his claws to help weaken him. He patiently waits for an opening and when it’s presented, takes the vampire down hard and fast. Xander’s opponent taps out and he hops off their back and turns to side of the cage where Angel is to give him a victorious smile.

Xander sees Angel’s eyes widen and fells a second of _alarm_ run through their bond. He twirls out of the way and is able to catch the attacking vampire by surprise. Slamming the coward into the cage wall and pulling his head to the side, ignoring the frantic struggling. He takes a lick of the vampire’s neck before brutally sinking his enlarged teeth into the soft skin and can’t hold in his groan at blood that tastes so good. It may not taste as good as Angel’s or Spike’s but it is the closest he has found.

After a few swallows, he rips his teeth out causing massive damage. Xander steps back and allows himself to change even more. Fur ripples across his body, his mouth shape changes to make room for teeth and jaws that can break through bone, and claws that can shed flesh like paper. The fear that is now coming off of the vampire, who decided to attack him when his back was turned after losing a fight, is intoxicating and Xander wants to taste more of it.

He lets loose a laughing bark that quiets most of the crowd, sending shivers down their spine. Xander’s attack is brutal and unrelenting. He rips and shreds through the vampire till it is nothing more then a pile of meat before ripping it’s heart out; causing it to finally dust. He is covered in blood and the floor is soaking in it and Xander starts to lick his hands and arms clean, not wanting to waste more of the vampire’s blood.

Xander is sure that his point has been proven; don’t try to stab him in the back and he is far from weak. He is more then worthy of standing by Angel’s side.

Angel pulls him out of the cage, so that the blood can be sprayed out, and gives him a fanged smile and then shares a bloody kiss with him.

The fight coordinator hands him a roll of money for winning. It’s almost as large as the one Spike had gotten and the blond had fought more times then he had. It seemed that a lot of the crowd had bet against him winning. Xander shrugs and shoves the roll into his pocket before plastering himself between Angel and Spike.

He tugs them out of the warehouse after telling Angel that if he didn’t take him home that Xander would be getting naked in front of the whole crowd to have his way with his mate, right there. The master vampire’s possessiveness ensured that he was quickly ushered out of the warehouse and driven to the mansion.

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The three shed their clothes and ended up in a tangle of naked skin on the large bed. The rush from the blood still sending pulses of pleasure through his body and causing his cock to throb.

Xander ends up between the two vampires again. Angel shoving lubed fingers into him to quickly stretch him, as Spike rubs his dick across his lips. A thrill runs down Xander’s spine as he has imagined just this scenario before. He opens his mouth to suck Spike in, while Angel sinks into him.

When they all reach their first orgasm, Xander shivers in bliss and swallows down the copper tasting come from Spike. His own orgasm is splattered across his stomach and the bed below without even the help of a hand.

Xander sits up and moves to the side, dragging Spike in between him and Angel. They are all up on their knees and sharing bites and kisses before Xander pulls back and looks into two pairs of golden eyes.

“I want to see you fuck him. What do you think about that?” His mate looks surprised but willing. Xander sends _reassurance_ and every bit of _arousal_ he feels at the thought when he gets a _apprehensive questioning_ feeling from Angel.

Xander is amazed when Spike doesn’t even put up a token protest, just arches his back and gives them both a smirk. He ends up being almost more distracted by watching Angel sink fingers, then his cock, into Spike then by the amazing blow job he’s receiving from the blonds’ pink lips.

The teen can’t help but think, as the trio collapse to the sex soaked bed much later, that was a pretty amazing start to a year. His mate carries him to the shower, before he can fall asleep, so they can all wash off the come and Xander’s sweat from multiple rounds of sex.

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Xander hears someone coming down the basement steps but doesn’t turn to greet his guest. He figures it’s Oz, as the werewolf had called earlier in the day saying he might stop by, and with a deep breath confirms it. Zia had probably let him in and directed him down here.

He is in the middle of a martial arts kata that Angel is teaching him and was trying to perfect it. The entire thing had something like 54 steps and it was taking some time to remember it. Angel was in front of him and Xander was copying him, each movement slow and precise. This was his second run through it today. Before he had been sparring with Spike and Angel, trying to take on both vampires at once which lead to being tossed on his ass more then a few times.

When Xander finishes the kata and is dismissed by Angel, he finally turns to Oz who is off to the side being watched by Spike. “Spike stop being weird. Come on Oz, lets go upstairs.”

“Bye, wolf.” The words are purred out and Spike is still watching Oz with a laser focus. Oz gives the blond vampire a small nod before following Xander up the stairs and into the kitchen.

“So, what’s up? You sounded weird on the phone.” Xander pulls a water out of the fridge for himself and a soda for Oz

“Willow said she wants to have sex.” Xander just blinks at Oz, hoping he misheard.

“What? You don’t smell like sex. Why are you talking to me about having sex with Willow? I do not want to think about Willow and sex.” Xander isn’t able to stop his nose from wrinkling a tiny bit because he really doesn’t want to think about Willow like that.

“We didn’t have sex. I said, she says she is ready for sex and wants to have it.” The werewolf adds flatly.

“Okay. So, you aren’t ready?” Xander asks awkwardly. He _really_ doesn’t want to think about Willow having sex but he knows Oz isn’t a virgin. That the boy had a semi-casual relationship with one of his band mates but it didn’t last because Sam wasn’t into monogamy.

“I don’t think we should have sex when she’s still in love with you and would prefer it to be with you.” Oz offers placidly.

Xander spits out the mouthful of water he had just taken. “What?! No, I’m pretty sure she is in love with you. Not me. Nope. No Xander love.”

Oz just raises an eyebrow. “You can smell her attraction and I’m not saying that she doesn’t care or even loves me too but she still wants you more. The wolf part of me can’t stand it and the human part isn’t so happy either.”

“Your wolf doesn’t want Willow?” Xander had never pushed Oz when the werewolf had said that he couldn’t be around Willow during his full moon nights. He had thought that the wolf part would allow someone they saw as a mate near.

“No. It hasn’t ever seen her as a mate. I learned a lot from those books Angel got me that were written by other werewolves and they all said the same thing, I should know pretty quickly when I meet someone who is compatible as a mate. Willow has never felt that way but I still love her.” The red headed teen admits quietly.

“So, what are you going to do? And why come talk to me? Willow knows I’m with Angel and that it’s permanent and I thought she had gotten over me completely when she started dating you.”

“You are the only one I can talk to about all this stuff and who actually has a chance of understanding me. I don’t know what I’m going to do. I don’t want to break up with her even though she isn’t my mate because I do love her but I’m not ready to have sex with her either, not while she still loves you like that. I’m not saying she can’t be attracted to someone else, you can’t help that, just not so in love…” Oz shrugs as he picks at his black painted nails.

“I don’t think I’m really all that good at this advice thing but just don’t do anything that you aren’t ready for or that makes you uncomfortable. And you can always talk to me and maybe you should talk to her about this if you haven’t. I imagine it would be extremely uncomfortable but maybe it’ll help.” Xander reaches out and gives Oz’s shoulder a squeeze. “Want to play some video games and talk more?”

Oz gives him a nod and they head to the game room. Xander hopes that this is resolved in a way that doesn’t hurt either of them but he isn’t sure it will. It’s also hard for him to believe that Willow is _in_ love, or still so, with him. Xander thought she was well and truly over that and very much into Oz and only Oz. This just makes the situation even more awkward because he is friends with both and the only one Oz will talk to about it.

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Angel watches his childe, watch the werewolf. “William?”

“Sire.” The blond turned to him with gold tinted eyes and a shrug. “The wolf smells good.”

Angel just shakes his head when Spike started to head upstairs and pulls him back to spar with him, to give Xander and Oz some privacy.

“Xan is a lot stronger then I expected, even for someone who is part primal. Last night, he tore that wanker up like it was a bit of nothing. Fore that, he was just playing.” Spike says as he is dodging blows from Angel, then dropping down and swinging a leg out that just missed Angel’s legs as the vampire jumped.

“I don’t think he was showing all his strength last night either. The primal has made him a top predator but sometimes you can almost forget, when he’s just acting like a teenager. I know I would lose against him if he was really trying to hurt me and I haven’t truly seen him attack anything more then prey or play with the wolf when in his full hyena form. When he truly masters his magic, I think he will be a nigh unbeatable foe.” Angel agrees as he jumps back from a blow to the chest, then tries for a front kick that barely grazes Spike.

“Should take him back for some more fights. He’ll get more experience fighting against a whole load of demons, instead of just sparring with us or even the slayers.” Spike says as he pulls two swords from the wall and tosses one to Angel.

The conversation ends as the two short swords clash together, the sound echoing through the basement. The vampires fly at each other so quickly they are almost blurs, moving at a speed no human could possibly match.

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Xander is sitting in the library with Willow and Michael as they study for a test. Buffy and Faith had left right after school to meet with Buffy’s mother.

“Buffy’s 18th birthday is less then two weeks away. I have an idea for a gift.” Willow mentions as they are finishing going over the study guide.

“Yeah. What?” Xander had honestly forgotten about Buffy’s birthday.

“I thought the three of us could make a protection spell for her.” Willow suggests.

“That could work. Are we adding them into stones or gems and how many do you want to add? If we do a necklace or bracelet we could do a few without it looking too bulky. Plus, I bet Giles will help us and gives us a few suggestions.”

“I was just thinking of doing a spell, not making something, and we don’t need Giles help.” Willow added the last pointedly.

“Oh. Well, it will be much more effective if we add them to something and even more so if we do separate ones in certain stones or gems. I have a book that should help us. We could do a bracelet for Faith, as well, and just give it to her later. Asking Giles for suggestions can’t hurt.”

They talk for a few more minutes about the protection spell ideas and Xander promises to bring the book he has on putting spells into gems and stones and personal protection jewelry.

He had actually been thinking about trying to make a few and this would be good practice. Though he still doesn’t understand Willow’s reluctance to ask Giles for suggestions, it seemed negligent not to get advice from a knowledgeable practitioner.

He knew the man wasn’t the end-all-be-all when it came to magic but Giles was well versed in it and knew the dangers of it, as well. A well-learned source that could be mined for all sorts of knowledge, shouldn’t be overlooked or ignored.

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A few nights later, the three of them are at the mansion and sitting in a circle in Xander’s ‘magic room’. The room and his collection of supplies had impressed Michael, who admitted to having barely a fraction of the stuff Xander did. He didn’t show them his grimoire, as it felt too personal to share, even if there was only a few pages of written text added to it. He had gotten Angel to write for him, since his own handwriting with a quill was still shaky at best and his mate’s handwriting was beautiful.

They had decided on the spells they wanted to add and had bought a silver charms bracelet and the charms they planned to add them too. Each little semi-precious stone charm would have a separate spell added to it and would form a stronger overall protection.

Xander had double checked everything with Giles and Angel to be sure they were doing it all correctly and had been pleased when it all checked out. Even if Willow had insisted it was unnecessary.

He had cleansed the small space earlier in the day to ensure nothing would interfere with their magic. All the candles were new, salt unused, and the pentagram freshly draw with new chalk. They were using a single protection rune for the base of all the spells to tie them together and had it painted onto a cloth that laid in the center of the circle.

With a murmured word from Xander, the black candles all flared to life. The first charm is placed in the circle and they begin their first spell, adding a simple but effective good health spell. The next charm has a healing spell placed on it that will speed even a slayer’s advanced healing. This process repeated with a very mild luck charm, one for focus, another for a clear mind/balance (more mental then physical), a magical shield, and a charm to help divert physical attacks.

When they are done with all seven charms, as that is supposedly one of the most magically powerful numbers and is suppose to increase the magic of each spell, Xander adds a small rune to the bracelet itself that should make it unbreakable.

The other two look fairly drained and while Xander feels a little tired, he could probably do the other bracelet tonight but decides to wait till the next time they can get together. They had decided to do a simpler bracelet for Faith, it was going to be braided leather with small round beads of semi-precious stones and wood woven into it.

They clean up the circle and put away all the paraphernalia before placing the bracelet into a small wooden jewelry box that Willow had chosen. The box is then tucked up on a shelf to wait till Buffy’s birthday in a week and give the magic time to settle.

The three agree to meet again soon to do the other bracelet and to possibly work on more for all of them. Though they would likely be much more simple, then the ones crafted for the slayers.

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Xander is in the library before his morning free period and is going over a study guide for a test he has to take later in the day. He listens to Buffy talk about two children who were murdered the night before and a symbol that was drawn on their hands. Giles seems to believe it may be a ritualistic murder, instead of a demon.

When Xander gets up to check it out, he is surprised that it looks just like the rune he, Willow, and Michael used for their protection circle the night before. Once Buffy leaves to head to class, he tells Giles this. That the symbol was the base for their protection spells they cast last night for the bracelet they were making for Buffy’s birthday.

Later, when the group is eating lunch, Buffy tells them about how her mother joined her and Faith on patrol the night before and was the one to find the murdered children.

Joyce actually shows up and asks Buffy if she found out anything from Giles about the children’s deaths. When Buffy mentions it could be ritualistic murder, Joyce mentions witches. Which makes Willow and Michael squirm uncomfortably and Xander tense slightly from the implications. Joyce tells them she knows that they dabble in witchcraft before being lead away to the library by Buffy.

Willow lets out a large breath and mentions being lucky her own mother doesn’t take any interest in her extracurricular activities or her curricular ones either. Xander always thought that the Rosenberg’s were uninterested to a fault in Willow’s academic achievements, especially for college professors.

Xander mentions the symbol that was on the children’s hands was the same protection rune they had used the night before and that he had already told Giles this. None of them can figure out why a protection rune would be used for a ritualistic murder, if that was what it was.

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That night there is a vigil held at City Hall but Xander doesn’t stay long, though long enough to hear Mrs. Summer’s talk about monsters, witches, and slayers. This doesn’t go over well with Giles or Buffy and Xander slips out before they try to pull him into the discussion.

The mayor is in attendance and would be an easy target but killing the man in a public place would gain too much attention and backlash. Xander has been trying to get a feel for the man’s routine and plans to try when the man is alone at night, on his way home; but so far he hadn’t been presented with a repeatable situation that would be a good opportunity. He has only just acquired the rifle that he plans to use and has been going over the idea in more detail with Angel.

Xander slips out the doors of the City Hall but not before getting close enough to the mayor to commit the man’s scent to memory. The heavy scent of dark magic that blankets the man is cloying and stings his nose but it’s a smell he wont forget.

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The next day, Xander is looking for Michael and Willow to make plans to do the other bracelet, when he sees some football jocks push Michael against a locker.

“Hey. What’s going on here?” Xander asks casually, as he grips the lead jock’s shoulder in a bone-grinding grip.

“No-. Nothing.” The one who looks like he wants to whimper from Xander’s grip, stutters out.

“Good. You should leave.” Xander had made it very clear he wasn’t someone to mess with in his sophomore year after the primal possession. The pack of idiots scurry away.

“You good?” Michael gives him a small nod, so Xander goes on to ask when they can meet up again this week.

The three of them are discussing times to get together when Snyder comes out into the hallways to announce they are searching lockers.

“Anything that makes Snyder that happy, can’t be good.” Xander mentions, as he watches the principle smile as the first lock is cut open by officers.

Both Willow and Michael are nervous because they have occult supplies in their lockers. Xander doesn’t have anything but school books in his own locker because he tries to keep all his occult supplies at home and the only book on witchcraft that he has at school, is in his backpack.

Buffy and Faith join them as Michael is led away, asking for a book Giles is looking for. Buffy sees the symbol written on a notebook of Willow’s and asks about it. Xander cuts in and explains that it was used for a protection spell that Giles is aware of, so that Willow doesn’t give away Buffy’s birthday present.

Willow passes off the book to Buffy, that Giles’ is looking for, before she is led away for the contents of her locker. A collection of various herbs, smudge sticks, and books.

Xander heads to the library with Buffy and Faith to see that officers are confiscating Giles books. They learn from Snyder that a group called MOO, Mothers Against the Occult, was the reason for the search and seizure and that it is founded and lead by Buffy’s mother.

Xander invites Giles over to the mansion to use the library there if he needs it to research but warns him about Spike being there.

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Later that evening Xander and Oz are keeping Giles company in the library with Oz trying to show Giles how to use the internet.

When Buffy and Faith join them and asks about the children; their names or who their parents are, no one can answer her.

Oz pulls up a chat box to ask Willow to help them research it and they find out her mother grounded her. It isn’t long before articles are being sent to them about similar situations with photos of the exact same children. The articles go all the way back to 1649, where actual names are listed. Hans and Greta, possibly the start of the Hansel and Gretel fairy tail according to Giles. Who now believes this may be the work of a demon who thrives on watching humans destroy each other.

While they are talking about how to deal with the demon and Giles makes plans to meet Angel at the mansion to check for a spell and potion that will reveal the true face of the demon, Michael comes running in. The boy has a bloody lip and when Buffy asks who did it, he confesses it was his father. Apparently, the wards Xander added to Michael’s house didn’t stop his father and would need to be changed.

Xander sends Michael with Giles to the mansion, after calling Angel, while he goes with Buffy to her house and Oz and Faith head to Willow’s. Xander feels awkward around Willow, again, since the talk he had with Oz and gladly follows the blond slayer out the library door.

When Xander and Buffy get out of the Jeep, he can hear multiple people in her home. Joyce is sitting in her living room with a group of other parents and there are ‘Never Again’ signs laying against the walls.

Buffy gets her mother away from the group to tell her the new information they have about the children and before Xander can warn her, a strange chemical scented cloth is pressed over her face and two men grab Xander’s arms. The wards he put on the house stop there from being any true violence and he doesn’t actually want to hurt the humans but it doesn’t stop him from struggling. They press a soaked cloth over his mouth and he tries not to breath for as long as he can but eventually he has to take a breath and he feels himself get hazy before the world turns dark.

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Xander wakes up woozy with a headache and hears Willow’s cried, “No!”. He tries to move but is tied to something and when he opens his eyes, sees a group of people and lit torches. Willow is trying to talk sense into her mother, who is watching someone secure her daughter to a stake.

Xander can hardly string a thought together and Buffy is only just beginning to wake up. The three of them are tied to stakes with thick rope and a heap of books, probably all Giles’, are at their feet.

He shakes his head to try to get rid of the haze caused by the chemical, likely chloroform, that they used to knock him out. Xander sees Willow’s mother, Shelia, pass a flaming torch to Joyce and can hardly keep in the hysterical laughter as they talk about staying in touch and getting lunch as they plan to light the piles of books under them on fire and burn their children at the stake. Buffy has finally woken completely and is pleading with her own mother to stop this madness and is being completely ignored.

As the torch gets closer to the pile of books, his own fear ratchets up and helps to start clearing his mind. Xander has enough thought to try to put out the flames but his normal control isn’t in his grasp. The flames finally gutter out as they touch the pile, causing Buffy’s mother to jump back. He sags in his bindings, tired from something so simple, before calling to Willow to try to help put out the torches.

“Willow, try to help me put the fire out. Think of it like a lesson…with serious consequences.” Xander’s tone loses it’s barely, and completely false, calm tone as multiple people come forward with torches.

A fearful murmur goes through the crowd before the two ‘children’ rally the adults again and none of them listen when Buffy points out they are talking to supposedly dead children. Then a few people step up to toss their own flaming torches down. Fires start at multiple places around them.

Xander tries to concentrate enough to put out the rest of the torches and spots of fire around them but his focus keeps slipping and the flames flicker but don’t go out completely. His normal control over the elements, especially fire and earth, usually comes easily to him but now he is having trouble putting out a single fire at a time or stopping it from spreading.

He calls out for Willow’s help again, as the books light on fire, hoping they can at least slow the fire down. Some of the flames gutters out but not all of them as both of their magics swirl in the air. Xander’s rising fear is working against him and he knows Willow has even less focus then he does. It is easy for him to feel her magic swirling around her with no focus, as she tries to help him extinguish the remaining flames.

The smoke is clogging his senses and the heat is rising, even if the flames aren’t close to his skin yet. A fear of fire he has had since he was a child, caused by his passed-out drunk parents allowing a candle to catch part of the living room on fire, causes his heart to beat against his chest like it wants to kick it’s way out of his rib cage and his breath comes in erratic pants. His own magic is rising quickly to protect him but he can’t let it go without getting control first or he may seriously harm or kill someone.

Xander tries to calm his breath and ignore the heat of the slow growing flames, closing his eyes to help himself focus. He begins chanting in his head in Swahili to help him concentrate better and control his magic before it lashes out. “Kuacha moto. Kuzima moto. Hakuna moto.” (Stop fire. Extinguish fire. No fire.) Repeating these simple phrases over and over as he feels his focus and grip on his magic tighten and concentrates with everything he has to stop the slowly growing flames. The only thing holding them back from blazing over the books is his and Willow’s fluctuating magic. The flames start to shrink and sputter out, as if they are losing the needed oxygen to continue to spread. As they flicker out completely the door bursts open and Giles, Michael, and Angel barge in.

The vampire’s demonic face doing little to hide the fear in his mate’s golden ocher eyes. Xander can feel _fear_ and _rage_ pouring down their bond and realizes he was probably flooding it with his own _absolute terror_ without realizing it.

Giles begins reciting a spell and Angel’s demonic face is enough to hold back the crowd from attacking them. The watcher throws a jar on the floor and the two dead children that had been egging on the crowd turn into a single large monster. It’s tall with large tusk-like fangs protruding from it’s bottom jaw, red eyes, and what looks like sores covering it’s body.

The already fearful crowd shrinks away from it and begins to run out of the door as the demon uselessly calls for the people to protect it from the witches. The demon turns toward Buffy to attack her and the slayer is able to break the stake she is tied to and leans down, skewering the demon through the neck.

Xander lets out a slightly hysterical laugh when she keeps asking, “Did I get it?”. The rush of adrenaline is quickly leaving him and his magic is whirling inside him, still looking to protect him.

Then with a crash, Oz and Faith drop through the ceiling. Oz’s “We’re here to save you?” causing another few huffs.

Xander isn’t able to stop how he pretty much collapses into Angel’s hold as the vampire rips the ropes off of him. His mate swings him into his arms and normally Xander wouldn’t be as cool with a bridal carry in front of his friends but he just buries his nose in the vampire’s neck and lets Angel carry him out of the room, his slightly shaking hands clenched into his mate’s leather jacket.

Angel is very aware of the fear he has of burning alive, having been told the story of Xander getting his hands burnt putting out a fire from a candle his parents had left lit that had burnt part of a wall in the living room, when he was younger, and how his parents hadn’t even woke they were so drunk. Xander has always been very watchful of the candles they light in their room or he uses for magic and double checks to make sure they are out when he leaves a room or before he goes to sleep. He finds his affinity with the fire element, slightly ironic, but it does gives him control over something that he fears.

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Angel buries his nose in Xander’s neck, taking in his mate’s comforting scent and knows that the scent of smoke still lingering on the soft skin is mostly in his head. The teen’s heartbeat is slow and steady with sleep and his scent calm now, no anxiety or fear left from earlier in the night.

The slam of _terror_ that had flooded through the bond earlier in the night, while Angel was helping the watcher find an unveiling spell, had almost dropped him to his knees. He had rushed out of the mansion with Giles on his heels, feeling like his heart had been ripped out, and little more thought then getting to his mate.

Images had flashed through his mind almost too fast from him to see, faces and torches, and the phantom scent of smoke. Angel figured it was a new aspect of their mate bond brought on by his mate being in danger.

When they had made it to Town Hall, Angel was able to hear Xander and smell smoke in the air from the outside the building. A strong surge of his mate’s magic had caused the flames to splutter out, as they busted into the room, but he could smell Xander’s fear thick in the air, even over the cloying scent of smoke.

His demon had been at the fore and for a second he had wanted to viciously rip through the humans that had been between him and his scared mate, the ones that had caused that all consuming fear. His demonic face had kept the humans from coming closer to them as Giles had recited a spell and threw down a bottle of strong smelling potion that unveiled the true face of the demon, even as he wanted nothing more then to be beside his mate.

As the humans began to run out of the room and the demon’s attention turned to the slayer, Angel had quickly made his way to his mate and ignored everyone else around them. The vampire had rubbed his hands over his mate’s shoulders while slightly hysterical laughter had bubbled out of Xander, a partial release of tension.

The teen had collapsed against him as he had untied the rope and when he lifted his mate into his arms, he had felt the slight shivers that had racked Xander’s body. Angel had wasted no time in leaving the room and taking his mate back home, leaving the other’s behind without a glance. Not wanting them to witness his mate like this, knowing Xander wouldn’t have wanted to show behavior that he perceived as weakness to them.

When they had gotten home, Angel had immediately taken Xander into the shower and scrubbed him off. He ended up doing it twice more before he had started a bath for Xander. Leaving his mate for a short time while he fixed a plate of snacks for the teen to nibble on while he relaxed in a lavender and chamomile scented bath. He left the lights muted but didn’t bother with lighting the candles that were clustered around the large bath tub, knowing that would probably cause Xander distress.

Then he had sunk into the large jetted tub behind his mate and had just held him, reassuring Xander that he was fine now and massaging out any tension that was left. When Xander had tried to put himself down for losing it like he had, Angel refused to allow it. Making sure Xander realized he had kept it together enough to put out the fire that could have seriously injured him and his friends. That the teen, like any person, was allowed to have fears and that it wasn’t his sole responsibility to save everyone or his fault if they had been hurt.

Sometimes, something would happen that showed just how young Xander still was, even though he held the knowledge of a millennia old primal, how he had the same insecurities that all teenagers have. That because of the treatment of his worthless parents, he had a few extra and that some ran deeper then normal.

Angel had no plans to allow those insecurities to fester and made sure Xander always knew how much he was loved and that the master vampire would always be there for him. That the young man was far from useless; something that had been, literally, beaten into Xander from a small age by the pathetic people who had created Xander. The vampire still wondered how two such disgusting humans could make something so amazing and Angel always ignored how Xander said he was biased, when he mentioned it.

Angel tightened his arms around his mate and laid a few kisses to Xander’s neck to sooth him, when he heard the teen’s heart rate start to climb and a soft whimper escape from the young man. He planned to stay awake the rest of the night, hoping that he would be able to stop any nightmares that could occur from the events earlier in the evening. He would make sure that either he or Spike would be here at night, so that Xander wouldn’t have to sleep alone anytime soon.

The blond vampire was still in LA and would be driving back tomorrow night, having left the evening before to pick up a grimoire that was being auctioned off. It was an early graduation gift for Xander from Spike, as it was his childe that had heard of the auction. The book was supposedly from a droucctrr demon mage and the species was well known for their healing magic, the book possibly a gold mind of healing spells and such. It was a very rare find, as they rarely fell into the hands of someone outside their species and they were quite long lived. Maybe the new grimoire would brighten Xander’s spirits and take his mind off the recent events.

There was another reason Angel had wanted Spike out of the mansion because Angel was having vamp safe glass put in all the windows, as a surprise for his childe. He had contacted the LA based company shortly after getting the information from Morimoto and set up a time for them to come measure all the windows that needed to be replaced, not including the stained glass as most of those were original to the house. They had since been working on creating the new windows and were now replacing the old glass with the new vamp safe stuff, called necro-tempered.

He was sure Spike would highly enjoy being able to stand in the sun again. Angel had even inquired if they could change a car’s windows out and it was something they could easily do.

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The next day Xander and the rest of the group start helping Giles go through the confiscated books to see which ones can be cleaned or restored. A few are burnt beyond recognition and will need to be replaced but the majority of the damaged books only have burned spots or curled pages.

Xander tries a restoring spell he found in one of the grimoires he has and it returns all but the completely charred books back to an almost pristine condition, though they have to do each book individually. The spell is easy enough to teach to Giles and Willow and the three of them make a day out of fixing each damaged book. Xander is sure he gained Giles devotion for all eternity-okay, that may be a small exaggeration-for reducing the number of books lost to a handful.

Willow tells them about her mother ‘forgetting’ about most of what happened and what she told her except that she was dating a musician and that Oz will be going to dinner at her house, later in the week.

Buffy mentions that her mother is trying to apologize to her by taking her shopping that weekend, which the slayer approves of. As she had been wanting a pair of really expensive boots and now she planned to milk her mom’s guilt, so she can get them.

Xander just says that Angel pampered him the rest of the night but mostly stays quiet and busy restoring the damaged books. The other’s had been too distracted to notice how Angel had carried out of there last night and he is a little grateful for that. He has no intention of explaining to them about the fear he has of being burnt to death or what caused that fear, it’s something even Willow isn’t aware of.

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The sour scent of guilt has been getting stronger on Giles but Xander has been mostly too distracted from being tired most days to pay it much attention. The only times he has talked to Giles the past week have been about the amazing book that Spike had given him, which had gotten the demon a stellar blowjob if Xander says so.

It has so many spells, pastes, and potions that he wants to try and Xander has wanted to talk to the watcher about it but the man has been distracted. It takes longer then it should for the behavior to raise any warning signs as Xander himself is distracted by too little sleep, staying out late, and engrossing himself in the new grimoire.

Xander had easily talked Spike into taking him back to the demon fight club, in exchange for introducing the demon to his kitten-poker buddies. Then he had spent a couple hours there most nights, the past week. Tearing through opponents so that he could wear himself out and fall into an exhausted sleep by the time he crawled into bed in the early hours of the morning. None but the largest demons even braved getting into the ring with him after he caved in a vampire’s skull with his fists.

He’d had _one_ fight with the eight foot tall demon with spiked tail, called Nretio, that had guarded the door of the new year’s eve fights and had been solidly beaten into the ground by that blue beast but he had put up more of a fight then any other opponent that had gone against Nretio. At least the demon wasn’t the apocalypse bringing kind because he could wipe the floor with all of them and Spike had told him that Nretio’s species was, also, highly resistant to magic but very rare in this dimension. Xander still wasn’t sure how to say or spell the species name because it wasn’t meant for any human tongue. Nretio just lived here because his main food source was drawn to the Hellmouth, some small furred demon that was very hard to catch.

He knew he was worrying Angel but it was the only way he had to escape the still lingering nightmares of burning to death, which had plagued his sleep since the night he gained consciousness tied to a stake. He hadn’t managed to meditate properly since then either and he felt unsettled in his skin, which lead to him acting irritated and aggressive.

Now he was sitting in the library earlier then normal because he was avoiding Angel, who kept giving him concerned looks, because he was in a bad mood and knew it would lead to him yelling at his undeserving mate. The vampire had been staying up at nights to watch over him while he slept and was usually still awake in the morning when Xander left for school and it was irritating him more then anything. So far he had managed to not lash out at Angel because the vampire was only concerned about him and wanted to help. It wasn’t the older man’s fault that Xander had been so grumpy the last week.

Xander was mostly ignoring Buffy who couldn’t seem to hit the broad side of a barn with the throwing knives she was practicing with. When she mentioned getting dizzy and Giles said she might have a flu bug, Xander heard a skip in the man’s heartbeat. A telling sign that the man was lying and the lingering scent of guilt intensified.

This finally gained the young man’s attention and he took a deep breath, taking in Buffy’s scent. There was an odd smell coming from her. “You smell odd.” He said, gaining her attention. Though she didn’t look happy at his comment. Giles’ heart skipped again and his scent gained a cautious edge.

“So, I am sick.” Buffy grumbled.

Xander shook his head, he didn’t know exactly what the smell was but he did know what sickness smelt like. “No, you don’t smell like sickness. There is just an odd smell mixed into your normal scent. I don’t know what it is exactly, sort of smells…fake?”

He wasn’t sure that was the word he was looking for but it was close enough, the scent wasn’t exactly natural smelling. He was about to say more when the bell rings for class and Giles ushers Buffy out of the library. The man won’t look at Xander when he tries to get the watcher’s attention.

“What do you know about what’s happening to Buffy?” Xander asks Giles, as he blocks the watcher in his office which the man had tried to escape to.

“Nothing. I don’t know what you’re talking about.” He doesn’t even need to listen to the man’s heart or smell the deceit to know that is a lie and it’s surprising because he knows the man can lie well.

Xander just raises an eyebrow at the man and taps a finger to his ear and watches the understanding dawn in Giles’ eyes. The watcher must have been truly distracted with what has been going on to forget about Xander’s enhanced senses and his ability to act like a lie detector.

Giles’ shoulders slump before he tells Xander about the Cruciamentum, a rite that all slayers who reach their 18th birthday must go through. Xander gets sicker and sicker as he listens to what the watcher tells him, at least the man agrees that the trial isn’t right but doesn’t seem like he is going to stop it.

“How could you do this to her? You have to know what you are doing is going to destroy her trust in you?” Xander shakes his head with disgust.

“It is a tradition and I am well aware of the damage this could do.” The older man states stubbornly.

“So, how come something that could and probably has lead to the death of slayers’ be something that the Watcher’s Council does? You are suppose to be the ones that protect them. Why would they want to destroy the trust between a slayer and her watcher? Do they just not want slayer’s to live past 18?” Xander can’t help adding the last question in viciously.

He doesn’t want to listen to Giles’ trying to explain and defend what the Council is doing, even though the man, himself, doesn’t agree with the trail.

“You will tell her or I will. This will not happen. I couldn’t care less about your stupid Council’s traditions.” Xander demands before he leaves the man’s office to gather his stuff, not wanting to be in the library another minute.

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At the end of the day, most of them are gathered in the library when Giles asks to speak to Buffy alone.

It’s only a few minutes later that they hear her yelling at him and then storming out of Giles’ office and then the library.

Willow, Oz, and Faith all look confused but Xander is just glad that Giles’ decided to tell her. Buffy would have taken it even worse if it had come from him and he hopes that Giles can gain her trust back. He may have some issues with her but that doesn’t mean he wants to see her dead.

Faith gets up to follow after Buffy, while Willow starts peppering Giles with questions. The man looks deservedly uncomfortable and Xander doesn’t feel even a smidge bad for the man. When Faith finds out this ‘tradition’ she isn’t going to take it well; she loves the strength given to her by being slayer. Xander hopes it doesn’t damage her trust in Giles irreparably, she doesn’t give it easily in the first place.

Xander doesn’t want to hear about the Watcher’s Council’s traditions again and leaves, to head home. He wants to spend some time with his mate and Angel deserves something for putting up with Xander the last week.

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When he makes it home, he heads straight to the master bedroom to curl up with his likely still sleeping mate.

He finds Angel and Spike curled around each other and can’t help but think about how gorgeous the pair are. Their naked, pale, perfectly flawless skin contrasts with the dark red silk sheets in such an enticing way that it makes Xander’s fingers itch to touch them. Xander never gets tired of looking at the beauty of his mate and he has never denied Spike’s beauty, together their opposite looks make them into a wicked dream.

The addition of Spike to their bed has been fun and the sex, incredible and inevitable. Xander is well aware of how vampire clans work and when they finally crossed that line together, it seemed natural. It has also given Angel inspiration for a slew of new drawings that featured Xander and Spike; occasionally all three of them.

Plus, he is thankful to have someone else to have Angel’s back, even if the pair snipped at each other constantly. At least now there wasn’t much hostility and the wary regard had mostly turned to a much more satisfying sexual tension. They had mostly fought and fucked their issues out by now.

He hoped the blond vampire found his own mate because the demon deserved a love like Angel and Xander shared. Spike needed someone who could handle the vampire’s overwhelming attention and the younger master vampire was meant to love and be loved. Spike had so much he could offer a mate and with the curse broken, it was possible that the blond could find his mate. Someone much more suited him then Drusilla because no matter how much Spike loved her, the relationship was heartbreakingly one-sided in many aspects and Spike needed someone who could match his love equally. Xander hoped for a highly patient person who could counter Spike’s impulsive impatience, someone calm to balance the blond vampire’s energy.

The teen shed his clothes as these thoughts slid through his mind and slid under the sheet, curling his body against Angel’s. His mate made a noise before moving slightly to wrap an arm around him.

It was hours later when the trio woke and it had been the most restful sleep Xander had, had in the past week. He could feel that the sun was close to setting, an extra sense he had gained since mating with Angel.

“Xander?” Angel’s cautious tone made Xander feel guilty because he knew it was his behavior the past week that had caused it.

Xander just pressed against Angel even more and let their lips touch in an eagar kiss. He made sure his _love_ and _apology_ was felt through the bond. “I’m sorry about this week. I know I’ve been worrying you.”

“You have but I know you’re bothered by the nightmares you’ve been having, more then you’ve been willing to say, and there isn’t anything I can do to help.” The vampire told him as he rubbed his thumb against Xander’s cheek, Angel’s large hand curled around the side of his jaw.

“Angel, you do help. Just by being here with me.” The teen reassured his worried mate.

“Oi. This is touching and all but I’m starving. Let’s continue the sappy shit in the kitchen.” Spike interrupted the pair as he stood, stark naked, and headed out the door.

The pair rolled their eyes but followed the blond to the kitchen, where he was already heating up a pot of water for the blood bags to soak in.

Xander pulled out leftovers from the night before, not bothering to heat it up before he started demolishing them. His body was pressed casually against Angel and one of his hands tangled with one of his mate’s own both of them ignoring the teasing from Spike. The other vampire stopped when Angel drew him into the master vampire’s other side, once he was finished with his cup of blood.

The trio talked about any plans for the night and Xander suggested going to the Bronze to dance and play some pool. Spike wanted to get fresh blood, so they planned to go to one of the ‘blood houses’ for a willing donor, beforehand. The blond talked Angel into partaking as well, Xander knew that Spike tried to get his mate to visit there more often or have willing donors brought to him, so that Angel would drink less bagged blood.

Xander was actually surprised that Angel hardly ever actually went but he knew his mate preferred his blood anyway and the primal enhanced teenager was able to give quite a bit everyday with no consequences because of his advanced healing. Though Angel didn’t drink from him everyday and sometimes his bite was less about drinking and more about marking Xander but that didn’t make him any less willing. He was sure he was probably addicted to the pleasure the bite and being fed from gave him, along with the taste of vampire blood when he bit his mate or Spike.

It was an hour later, that the primal teenager watched with a curious fascination as Spike and Angel feed off a pair of pretty girls that were at the blood house. He could smell the arousal and hint of fear coming from the girls and Xander had to admit it was an intoxicating mix, it made him have to adjust himself in his tight jeans.

Neither vampire drank for long and made sure to give a few drops of blood to the human girls so that the wounds would heal but not enough to create any servant link. The pair of college age girls were sent on their way and reminded to stop by the front room so they could get something to eat and drink. Xander shared a copper flavored kiss with each vampire before they headed back out.

The blood houses were in so much better condition now then they had been when Xander found out about them. Clean rooms with security provided for the humans with drinks and snacks set up in the front room. The house manager stayed in the living room and tried to ensure that the humans didn’t come back too often and didn’t need medical attention before they left. Those looking to donate blood all hung out in the large living room waiting for vampires to stop by and pick their meal of choice. Plus, all the blood houses were protected by no-violence and no-ill intent spells. Xander had been thankful they worked properly with all the vampires coming to feed but as long the vampire didn’t plan to kill or seriously hurt the humans they were allowed in.

Vampires now paid a fee to use the blood houses and then a much smaller fee was given to the humans who donated blood, which actually lead to lots of donors. The left over money paid for upkeep of the house, salary of the manager and security, and the refreshments for the humans. Most vampires didn’t put up too much fuss, as they weren’t also required to pay a tithe to Angel as the Master of Sunnydale, as well; neither Angel or Spike had to pay as the Master and his childe. Plus, willing blood here came without the threat of the slayer interrupting your meal and staking you and was pretty potent.

Though they all knew that some vampires still drank from unsuspecting Sunnydale citizens, most left their victims alive if a pint low. The ‘death by barbeque fork’ incidents were down to an all time low, as many vampires correctly feared Angel, and was mostly held to the criminal human population. The number of new vampires had drastically decreased, as well, and there were very rarely ever newly risen vampires now. It was probably as good as it was ever going to get in Sunnydale and Xander was proud of his mate for that fact.

The trio left the blood house and were about to get in the Jeep to head to the Bronze. They always gained quite a bit of attention when the three of them danced together.

“Wait, someone is watching us.” Xander warned before trying to pinpoint where their watchers were located. The hairs on the back of his neck had risen as soon as they had stepped out of the house. “There.” He whispered the words as he looked towards where he was sure a few people were watching them but the wind was working against Xander and he couldn’t get a scent. They were too far away to do more then know they were in that direction.

“What should we do?” Angel came up beside him.

“Kill ‘em.” Spike declared as he vamped out, the blond always ready for a fight.

Xander shook his head and gestured towards the Jeep. “No. Lets just leave, no idea who or what they might be. No point going into a fight with such a disadvantage. I would rather go dance for awhile and then have some amazingly athletic sex after.”

It was easy to get the pair of vampires to listen to him after hearing that and they all got in the jeep before Xander pulled out and quickly drove away.

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“Two and a human. Wait, they’ve noticed us. Fuck, how did the human one do that?”

“Obviously not human. What are they doing?”

“Leaving it looks like. How did the one know we were here? We should have been out of range.”

“No telling what it is or what it can do. What I want to know is why we can’t get in or near that house they came out of. It has plenty of bloodsucker activity but they hardly use the front door and it’s suicide to go into the sewer tunnels.”

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Xander wishes he was still in bed with his mate and Spike instead of at school and listening to Giles explain how the effects of the organic compound he had drugged Buffy with would fade in no more then a couple days, as she hadn’t had the final dose. He explained he would go by the abandoned house they were keeping the vampire they planned to use in this sick ‘tradition’, later that day, and tell them he had confessed to his slayer and face the consequences. Buffy was determinedly giving him the cold shoulder and Willow’s glare looked like it might kill the man.

He is mostly ignoring them all and reading over a salve he planned to make that night, double checking the ingredients because he had to go by the magic shop for a few of the rarer ones he didn’t have yet. The salve is supposed to heal most cuts or scrapes without leaving a scar in hours instead of days or weeks. It would even make most old scars and bruises fade away. This was the first salve or potion he planned to make from the grimoire on healing magic he had been given.

“Xander! Xander!” The teen being called finally raised his head after being nudged by Oz and realized that Willow and Buffy had been calling him.

“Yeah?” He asked with a raised brow and noticed that Giles was in his office with the door closed.

“You haven’t really said anything about what Giles did?” Willow asked in a questioning tone.

“Nothing else to say, really. I smelled his guilt and heard how his heart skipped a beat when he mentioned Buffy having the flu, then smelled the strange scent on her and confronted him. He confessed and then told Buffy.” Xander answered with a shrug.

“Hold on. You’re why he told me?” Buffy asked disbelievingly.

“Yeah, I guess. I mean he wasn’t happy about the whole thing but he is a watcher at heart and no matter his own feelings, would have possibly followed through with this ‘tradition’.” Xander couldn’t keep the scorn out of his voice, as he said the last word. He didn’t mention that he had told Giles that he had to tell Buffy or he would, her trust in the man was already shaky at best.

Xander tuned back out of the girl’s conversation shortly after that before turning to Oz and confirming their plans for the next full moon in a week and a half.

When the bell rung for first period, Xander signaled for Willow to stay behind and when Buffy left for class, he pulled out the wooden jewelry box that held Buffy’s birthday present and mentioned they should go ahead and give this to her at lunch instead of waiting for the dinner they planned later. Willow agreed with him and they made quick plans to have lunch in the library.

At lunch; Giles, Xander, Willow, Oz, Michael, Faith, Cordelia, and Buffy were all in the library where Xander had ordered food from Soul Food during first period to be delivered, along with a small cake.

Buffy looked surprised but pleased. Xander pulled out the jewelry box again and sat it in front of her. “Willow and I thought that it might be better to go ahead and give you this now instead of waiting till your birthday dinner. Then I figured it wouldn’t hurt to order some food and cake, you can never go wrong with those.”

Buffy pulled the box closer to her before opening it, she made a small gasp as she pulled the charm bracelet out. “This is gorgeous.”

“Thanks. It was a joint gift between myself, Willow, and Michael. It’s a protection bracelet with a variety of helpful spells on it and I thought with everything going on that you could probably do with a little back up while your slayer powers are on the fritz, so we decided to not wait to give it to you. There is a folded card in the bottom of the box that list the seven spells added to it, one in each charm.” Xander explained but Willow was already trying to tell Buffy about each one. He really doubted the overly complicated explanation made much sense to Buffy, as she had never been interested in their studies of magic. That was why he had added a simplified explanation of each spell or Angel had, as the vampire’s handwriting was much better then Xander’s.

They all had a pleasant lunch and Giles spent most of the time talking to Xander about the spells in further detail and how they melded together. Everyone complimented the amazing food and Xander encouraged them to all try out the demon restaurant, as long as they didn’t cause any trouble. Cordelia demanded Xander take her there for a friend date one day and he quickly agreed, the pair liked to get together and snark at each other. Though he was worried that she was already talking about prom and what she planned to wear, a prom that was still a few months away.

It was a nice moment in the chaos that was their lives and the tension that still ran between Xander and Buffy.

\----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

The mess with the Watcher’ s Council was over and dealt with before Xander had even heard about it. They were all gathered at Buffy’s house and she was telling them how the vampire had attacked her on the street but she had managed to escape and be saved by Giles. The man had been coming back from the Sunnydale Arms, an abandoned boarding house, where he had found a Council member dead and the vampire missing.

Then Buffy had found her mom kidnapped and had gone after the vampire without calling in backup. Faith had been out on patrol, so unreachable, and Giles had gone back to the library after dropping her off, only to be found by Quentin Travers, asshole Council member, and told that Buffy had entered the field of play. Like making a slayer face a psychotic vampire without their powers was some kind of game.

Buffy had been able to switch the vampire’s water with holy water because the vampire was addicted to his pills, which the slayer had tried to keep from him. She admitted it was mostly luck because there was the chance that he wouldn’t have used the water or noticed it was holy water before he drank it.

While Buffy had been untying her mom, Giles had burst into the room with another vampire that had been turned by the captured one before the man staked him.

Then the Council member, Quentin, told Buffy she passed but Giles failed and was fired as her watcher because he couldn’t be impartial. Humorously, Buffy told the man to “bite me” before he left.

This wasn’t something that was taken very well by any of them, when the news was relayed by Buffy. It had been a lot of hard work making Giles loosen up some and none of them planned to start over with a new one. Plus, they all cared for him and the man would go to bat for any of them. They all agreed that Giles would be staying and if they sent another watcher that they would make sure they wouldn’t want to stay for long.

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Angel tries to ignore Buffy beside him, as she continues to prattle on about something. He ended up on a patrol with her because Xander was keeping the werewolf company for the night and they had demons from the Sisterhood of Jhe running around, trying to open the Hellmouth. Xander should have been out patrolling with them because he was one of their heavy hitters but wolf Oz had been very agitated earlier in night and his mate had been unwilling to leave him.

The vampire wished that Faith hadn’t decided to patrol on her own because he was ready to strangle the blond girl beside him. Sometimes he wondered if he had been insane when he had been attracted to her but even if she almost drove him to murder, she was still physically attractive but that didn’t make up for the fact she had little of importance in her head. Buffy could never come close to comparing to Xander, his mate.

He wished he had just bowed out for the evening and spent it with his mate and the werewolf or even Spike. Thankfully, it isn’t much longer before they decide to end their fruitless patrol and head their separate ways.

Angel heads towards the warehouse district, where Oz and Xander were shifting for the night since they had decided against the forest with the apocalypse-bringing demons in the area. That way Xander would be available if he was needed and could possibly command Oz to help.

When he arrived at the correct warehouse, he scaled the wall and went in through an upper window and climbed onto one of the many metal beams running near the ceiling. Angel found Spike already sitting on one of the beams and quickly joined him.

Xander and Oz were both in their animal forms tumbling across the floor, amid a chorus of growls and whines. The pile of meat and bones that had been placed on a tarp in the middle of the warehouse floor, was almost entirely gone or strewn around.

“They’re a bit restless tonight and acting up. Thought about joining ‘em but they’ve been too rowdy. Tore their food up with a mite more viciousness then usual. Though they might try the same with me.” Spike informed him as they continued to watch the pair.

“Maybe they can sense The Sisterhood of Jhe in the area or the increased activity of the Hellmouth.” Angel suggests as he watches Xander tackle Oz from the side, plowing into him with astonishing speed.

“Might be right, Peaches.” Spike answered with a smirk before turning back to watch Xander and Oz running around the warehouse in a full sprint, taking turns tackling each other. “Beautiful and deadly, the both of ‘em.”

Angel couldn’t help but agree as the powerful animal forms bashed into the floor and walls with no signs of pain or slowing down. The older master vampire put an arm around his favored childe and drew him closer, as they waited for the pair to retake their human forms in the early pre-dawn hours.

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Angel is again out on patrol with Buffy but this time Spike had tagged along, against Angel’s wishes, it was giving him a headache keeping the two from killing each other. The blond vampire refused to miss the big fight with the Sisterhood of Jhe and had no desire for the Hellmouth to be opened.

They make a stop by Willy’s bar to see if the man has heard anything. The weasel always knows a little about everything going on in Sunnydale. When they get there they find him smiling and thanking Angel. Apparently, the Sisterhood of Jhe had been by but when they tried to attack him and his bar they were stopped by Xander’s ward. Though the man had discovered that the Jhe demon’s plans were for that night.

The pair leave to rush back to the school to see if Giles and Willow are still there, as they had been planning a spell earlier in the day. Angel wonders if they have time to make a quick detour to inform Xander but decides to try sending an image of the school to him instead.

It is something they have tried to work on since the first time it happened when Xander was tied to a stake but they have been unable to do little more then send flashes of images, much like the first time. Though the images with the added feelings they can send along their mate bond can manage a fairly decent message and communication system. Their mate bond is so young that Angel is surprised they even have this much but knows that the primal magic that Xander wields has a large part in the development of their bond.

Angel feels a rush of _vicious satisfaction_ from a hunt well done from the mate bond and a flash of a Jhe demon but has little time to think on it. He has no intentions of this being his final night on Earth, especially as he isn’t in the arms of Xander.

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Xander and Oz hit the Jhe demon, that was attacking Faith, with the force of a speeding train and Xander rips it’s throat out so viciously that the head almost comes completely off. He had seen the image of the school seconds before flash through the mate bond from Angel.

Oz had been more and more agitated as the night wore on before he had charged the wall next to the door of the warehouse, ripping the metal from the spell strengthen door. Xander would need to strengthen the walls before they used the warehouse again. He had no option but to follow and at least he had a decent idea that Oz was heading towards the school. The Hellmouth’s energies had been getting increasingly stronger the past few days and this would let Oz get some of his aggression out.

Xander nudges Oz onward, making sure he doesn’t go after Faith who had jumped out of the way when she had seen them coming. He is able to hear her running behind them but they are eating up ground like it is nothing and soon lose her.

When they make it near the school there is a group close to the main doors carrying a bunch of stuff but Xander can smell the rot and death magic before they get within 50 yards. The primal urges Oz on and they hit the group like a wreaking ball. Two of the group wont be getting back up and the other one runs but doesn’t make it far before Oz is ripping into it enthusiastically but Xander stops the werewolf from making a meal of the possible zombie.

The smell of kerosene assaults Xander’s enhanced sense of smell and he finally takes notice of the items strewn across the ground. The first thing that comes to mind is they were planning to build a bomb, information from the possession by the soldier last Halloween, but the supplies available aren’t enough. So, either it has already been built or at least part of it has been. He isn’t lucky enough for it to not have been created yet.

Oz is growling and edging towards the school but keeps looking back at Xander, not wanting to leave his alpha. Xander abandons studying the materials spread across the ground before following Oz into the school. He tries to find any more of the rot and death magic smell but there are so many overlapping scents and the oppressive feeling in the area from the Hellmouth’s increasing energies.

Xander directs them towards the basement because it would be the best placement for a bomb but before they enter the stairway that heads down below the school, three Jhe demons come bursting out of a classroom. There is blood and the smell of rot heavy in the air and Xander is sure they have made a meal of one of the zombies.

Xander and Oz attack the demons head on, slashing with their claws and ripping into flesh with their teeth. Xander can feel the skull of one demon crushed between his massively strong jaws, jaws and teeth that are made for cracking and crushing elephant sized bones. Oz is frenzied by the full moon and thrill of a hunt, brutally ripping into one of the demons with no remorse or hesitation. The last is taken down by both of them, gutted by long sharp claws

Once all three demons are dead, Xander takes a minute to shift back to human and tries not to gag from the taste of rotten meat and demon that fills his mouth. He keeps a partial change so that he has fur covering most of his naked skin. He nudges Oz’s head with his hand, pushing the werewolf away from devouring anymore of the stomach of the last demon they killed. “Come on big guy. We still have to find that bomb.”

Before they can take a step back towards the stairwell, one of the heads of the demon from the Hellmouth bursts through the wall. Xander ignores it because he knows that the other’s are handling that, he can hear faint shouts from them and Giles’ magic in the air.

They quickly make their way down the stairs and Xander is able to hear movement from the boiler room near the back of the school basement, as they draw closer. Oz’s ears are perked up and facing forward, his teeth bared in a snarl with a low growl vibrating through his body. When they enter the room, a guy who Xander recognizes from school, Jack O’Toole is bent over what has to be the bomb.

The guy, zombie, hears them and turns around and stumbles back slightly when he sees Oz at Xander’s side.

“Step away from the bomb and I wont kill you and you wont be coming back when I’m done with you.” This causes the zombie, though he doesn’t have any visible decomposition on him Xander can still smell it, to pause. For a few moments it looks like the guy will refuse to listen but eventually takes a few steps to the side, away from the bomb.

With a signal to Oz the werewolf attacks, while Xander goes to check out the bomb. The ticking counter has only a couple minutes on it but the thing looks simple enough that he should be able to defuse it. Thankful, again, for the knowledge left behind by the soldier possession, one who had some knowledge about demolitions.

He ignores the sounds of Oz ripping apart the zombie behind him and takes another good look at the explosives to make sure he wont set them off by accident. Xander pulls a wire out that causes the numbers to stop counting down and then the display to turn off. Thankfully, it was very simply wired. It takes another minute to get the explosives away from the detonator to make sure an accident doesn’t happen.

When he turns back to the gruesome noises that had been occurring behind him, close to a quarter of the zombie has been eaten already. He really isn’t sure what the werewolf’s determination to eat rotten flesh is all about but he steps in again to push Oz away but this time gets growled at. Xander growls back but gets no response, so shifts back to his hyena form and head-butts Oz in the side to knock him off the partially eaten zombie.

He gets another growl but this time Xander’s is much more ferocious and Oz whines before laying down and showing his belly. Xander takes a moment to sniff at it and then lick Oz’s muzzle in acceptance before nudging the werewolf to get back up.

Xander, still in his hyena form, with Oz behind him make their way to the library where they can hear a few voices. Xander shifts back partially when he hears Willow yell when she sees them but fists a tight hand on the nape of Oz’s neck to keep the werewolf next to him. “Took care of the Hellmouth, then?” He asks as he makes his way to Angel with Oz following obediently beside him.

“My lord, what in the name of bloody hell? Where have you been and why do you have Oz with you?” Giles demands as he cradles he left hand close to his chest.

“Well Oz busted out of the warehouse and I knew he was coming here so I followed him. We could feel the Hellmouth’s energies getting stronger. We came across Faith fighting a Jhe demon-.”

“Yeah, him and the wolf took it down in seconds. Almost ripped it’s head off.” Faith interrupted. “Thanks for that by the way.”

“No problem. Anyway, when we made it to the school there were a few zombies or at least undead guys who were walking and talking. Oz and I took down the three we found outside the school and I noticed they had some supplies to make a bomb. We tried to follow the rotting scent to see if there was another one but there were too many overlapping smells but I figured the best place for a bomb would be in the basement, so we headed that way. Got intercepted by three of those Jhe demons, who had made a meal of another zombie, but made quick enough work of them. Ended up finding Jack O’Toole, who was very much undead but not a vampire, with a bomb in the boiler room; very Clue like. Oz took him down while I defused the bomb. So, that was my night. How about yours?”

There was shocked silence from most of the group for a few moments before they all launched into what had happened. Angel, Spike, and Buffy had found out from Willy that the Jhe demon’s plans were for tonight and that Xander’s wards had kept them from hurting the man or his bar. While Giles and Willow had been working on a binding spell and Faith had been fighting with the Jhe demon and then followed Xander and Oz to the school, after they killed it.

The group had met in the library as the multi-headed Hellmouth monster had come up out of the Hellmouth and it had grown since they first saw it. But the group was able to hold it back and Giles was able to complete the binding spell.

They all had bruises and cuts on them, while Giles had a broken left hand and Buffy had a broken right arm. Angel had actually been knocked unconscious for a minute at the end of the battle but Spike had kept an eye on him and he had woken before Xander had entered the room. Buffy was telling them about how Giles had done the ‘bravest thing ever’, as they all made their way out of the school.

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The next morning at school Xander dropped small jars of purple salve in front of Giles, Willow, Buffy, and Faith. He was still tired because after taking a shower and eating a massive meal, Xander had spent the night tangled up with Angel and Spike. They had gone till dawn celebrating their survival and even primal enhanced, Xander needed more then a couple hours of sleep after the last couple days. It had been almost impossible to drag himself out of bed this morning.

“This is for cuts, bruises, and scars. It will heal most stuff in hours instead of days or weeks and it has a mild numbing effect. I made it last week from the droucctrr grimoire on healing I have. If I had remembered it last night, I would have asked if you guys wanted to come to the mansion for it.” Xander offered as they all looked suspiciously at the purple salve.

Giles was the first one brave enough to try it and spread a small amount across a long cut on his arm, making a pleased noise after a moment. “It really does numb it.” And they could all see that the redness was fading and the skin starting to knit together.

Which prompted the rest into trying it on a few cuts or bruises. Buffy was even gently rubbing it onto the arm that was in a sling, her slayer healing and bracelet making quick work of the broken arm she had the night before.

Xander and Oz were the only ones without any marks on their bodies, as their animal form had offered extra protection and their advanced healing had taken care of any bruises or cuts already. Though their opponents either didn’t put up much fight or weren’t given time, so they weren’t as banged up in the first place.

“G-man, I have a spell that is suppose to help with breaks but I’ve never tried it. If we could find a way to test it at some point, it could be really helpful. Especially for you and Willow, as you’re the only two with normal healing.”

“Indeed. I would like to take a look at that book, as I was too preoccupied before to pay much attention. It’s likely to have a wealth of knowledge we could put to use.” Giles replied and no one mentioned why the man had been so preoccupied but at least he and Buffy had seemed to have made up.

“Sure. There are a few things in there I’ve been wanting to talk to you about. Some of the spells or potions are species specific and I wanted to know if they could be adapted and there is some stuff I think would work for Buffy.” Xander admitted.

Then he and Giles continued their conversation all the way through Xander’s free first period. The teen was given a few good ideas, which he wrote down in a notepad he always kept with him now. It was filled with half-formed ideas or questions that he wrote down whenever they popped into his head, so he wouldn’t forget them.

At lunch, Xander is able to pull Faith aside. “Here, this is for you. Buffy’s was a present but I figured one would come in handy for you too. Honestly, I think they would be good for all of us but you and Buffy see the most action, other then myself. Your bracelet is a little different design but I thought this would fit you better. Willow and Michael helped me with it before this Jhe demon mess and it needed a few days to be ready or I would have given it to you already.”

Xander passed the girl a small cinched red silk bag and the bracelet that fell into Faith’s palm was braided leather with seven round gemstones that carried the charms and spells and rounded pieces of wood in between each stone.

He explains about the protection, healing, and luck that was giving by the bracelet and asked that Faith keep it on her. That it only worked when it was making skin contact.

“Thank, Xan. Can you put it on?” Faith asks before holding out her arm. Xander quickly latches it around her wrist before they head out to meet Cordy in the parking lot, as they plan to head off campus for lunch.

Xander, Willow, and Michael had already made plans to create another one in a few days. The other two hadn’t been as drained this time or at least Willow hadn’t but they still figured it would be best to only do a single bracelet every few days. They still needed to make one for Giles, Oz, Cordelia, and themselves.

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When the trio gathered at Xander’s a few nights later to make a bracelet for Giles, Willow and Michael were talking about Amy. The girl was still in San Francisco and thriving with the coven she was staying with. Michael even admitted he had applied to colleges there, so he could visit or even join her coven.

Xander encouraged him because getting away from the Hellmouth was of the good. Plus, no matter how careful you were on practicing magic here, the malignant energies could taint you and your magic. It wasn’t a big of worry for someone like Giles, as the man’s magical formative years were spent far away from any Hellmouth. But for them, it was a major risk as they were learning magic right over the Hellmouth and each time they used it, they were opening themselves up to be tainted by the twisted energies.

Xander told them about the weekends he would travel outside of Sunnydale and do the purifying rituals on himself and practice magic away from the taint of the Hellmouth. He invited them to come with him this weekend, if they wished, and he would teach them some of the cleansing rituals he used on himself. They weren’t just the simple ones that had been in Giles’ books when they first started learning about witchcraft but much more complex rituals that protected him against Hellmouth energies when he came back to Sunnydale.

He had been highly worried when Michael admitted to having only done a cleansing ritual twice since he started to do magic and that he had still been in Sunnydale and Willow told him that she hadn’t done one yet. Xander had tried to keep his temper when he found out Willow still refused to take precautions with magic and treated it so carelessly, when she had seen what could happen if it was misused. Once he heard that he told them that would both be coming with him this weekend and they would see if there was any damage from their negligence and Xander hoped that Michael hadn’t picked anything up when he used that ritual over a Hellmouth.

After getting an agreement from both of them to go with Xander, the conversation drifted back to Amy and plans for after graduation.

Willow didn’t seem happy about Michael leaving and when she asked Xander what he planned to do after graduation. He told her that he planned a cross country road trip with his mate and that they were already planning on moving away from Sunnydale. That was taken even less well. Xander reminded her that she had applied to and would likely be accepted to many schools across the country and that she should really think about going. Even if for only a year or two. That the Hellmouth wasn’t her priority and would still be here when she got back.

There were two slayers now and soon they were likely to have another watcher. Plus, they could still be on call for anything major that happened on the Hellmouth. Xander and Angel would probably only be in LA, so only a couple hours away, and if Oz decided to stay in Sunnydale, Xander would visit him during the nights he changed.

It took awhile to get Willow focused back on the task at hand. Giles’ was going to be a thicker doubled braided, light brown, leather bracelet with seven gemstones and a teardrop shaped quartz between each stone. The quartz were meant for cleansing and would help with the taint of the Hellmouth and negate most things trying to affect one’s aura, it was something that was going to be a part of every magic users bracelet or necklace.

Once they were finished, Xander slid the bracelet into a brown leather pouch and set it up on a shelf. The bracelets needed a couple days before they could be used, so that the magic could settle properly.

Xander ushered both of the other teenagers out of his house afterwards because he didn’t wish to listen to Willow anymore. He could tell that Willow was less then pleased with the news of him moving but had no intentions of altering his plans to please her. He couldn’t understand why she would even choose to stay her after graduation, especially with the Ivy league schools that were interested in her.

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Xander was in the library earlier then normal reporting to Giles about the cleansing rituals he had lead Willow and Michael through, the previous weekend. The trio had gone deep into the Los Padres National Forest and performed the rituals at the start of a small creek where it came up out of the ground from a hidden well of water. A perfect place for ‘cleansing’ the mind, body, and aura. Thankfully, any taint the two had picked up from their careless behavior had been taken care of and Xander made sure they knew they were welcome to join him the next time he went out there.

He had already given Giles’ the bracelet they had made for the man and explained the presence of the quartz crystals. They were now talking about getting Willow to visit the coven in San Francisco that summer, especially if she didn’t plan to leave Sunnydale for college, when a man walked in.

The guy made Xander think of a tweedier version of Giles, one who would also probably wet his pants if faced with the situations they had been in. It took less then a second of guess work to realize this was the new watcher they had sent before the man introduced himself. Xander was far from impressed that they would send someone so unseasoned and assumed they just wanted a mouthpiece for the Watcher’s Council.

When the man made a comment about killing two vampires, in controlled circumstance, Xander had enough of the man putting Giles down. He started sarcastically clapping, drawing the man’s attention to him. The teen gave a nod to Giles’ comment about not finding controlled circumstances here because that was the complete truth.

“Good job, really. I mean I killed more then that in the first week I found out about vampires and before I had any training, one of which was my best friend. Giles here fought the multi-headed Hellmouth monster, while performing a binding ritual and that was just last week. Your two vampires, under controlled circumstances if just…impressive.” Xander sneered out the last word and was pleased to smell the embarrassment and hint of fear that came off the man.

Buffy had come in when Xander started in on the new watcher and had just silently watched with a raised brow. The man finally noticed her by the end of Xander’s rant and when the man introduced himself, Wesley Wyndam-Pryce, she refused his hand and asked Giles if he was evil…twice.

Faith walked in after they had found out the vampires the two girls had faced on patrol the night before were part of the El Eliminati, a duelist cult that worshipped a demon named Balthazar. She soon walked right back out, once she found out about the new watcher, and Buffy followed.

Xander promised to ask Angel about them and mentioned finding a new place to spend his free first period, as he couldn’t listen to the new watcher much longer without causing the man bodily harm. The man had already tried to tell Xander that he should leave demon fighting up to the slayers or he could end up hurt.

The primal enhanced teenager welcomed the man to watch him spar with Buffy and Faith after school and then see what he thought or maybe he would like to spar with Xander. He thinks it was his grin that had the man refusing to spar with him, oh well. He would see soon enough what the teen was capable of.

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Angel is with Xander when they head to the Bronze, in search of Buffy and Faith. Angel had found that Balthazar was very much still alive and disgustingly fat; the mated pair had done some recon before they had gone to the library to inform Giles.

When they get to the club, Faith and Buffy are dancing with a group of guy but Buffy comes towards Angel when she notices him. Xander steps out of the shadows in front of his mate and stops her in her tracks, he has no time for whatever she is up to. “We need to talk to you about Balthazar.”

They find a small sitting area and Angel tells Buffy about Balthazar still being alive, when they are interrupted by Wesley. When the man tells them the amulet is hidden away safely, Buffy plucks it out of his jacket and tosses it to Angel.

Angel and Xander leave after getting the amulet but not before warning Buffy that they will make a plan to deal with Balthazar tomorrow night. That is would be better if they all went and were better prepared, that there are close to two dozen Eliminati vampires.

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They all meet early the next night in the library to coordinate their attack and ignore the suggestions of Wesley, the baby watcher. Xander found out the man really doesn’t like that name, which means he has to use it from now on. He still calls Giles, G-man on occasion because of how it bothers the older man.

Buffy, Faith, Xander, and Angel all plan to hit Balthazar’s hideout hard and fast. Both watchers plan to stay behind because they know Wesley will tag along if they have Giles come with them and they don’t want to have to keep an eye on the new baby watcher. They may not like him but that doesn’t mean they want him to end up vamp food. Oz is out for the night because he has a gig with Dingoes Ate My Baby and a date with Willow.

Xander supplies stakes that wont dust with their vampire if left behind and Angel passes out a few swords and a crossbow to Faith; especially after Angel tells her to draw her new lever-action bow on him to see how fast she can. He takes her to the ground before she can even pull it back but tells her it could come in handy for long distance, once she learns how to use it.

Xander has a few bottles in his pockets that are the magical equivalent of molotov cocktails, that are to set Balthazar on fire. He hopes they work on the disgustingly fat demon, as none of them know its full powers.

When they get near the warehouse a pair of the Eliminati vampires attack them but are quickly dispatched by the four of them. Another is taken down by Faith and Buffy before Xander stops them all and signals them to hide back in the shadows.

“Human up ahead.” He whispers just loud enough for the slayers to hear him. It’s only a couple minutes later that the heartbeat gets further away. “Alright, they’re gone. Lets split up. Angel and I’ll hit the front doors and you guys come in either from the side or back, both have entrances.”

Everyone agrees before they break apart at the juncture of the alleys, the slayers turning down the side of the building while Angel and Xander continue on towards the front. When Xander gets closer to the doors, he can hear both Giles and Wesley’s voices and sees that Angel can as well.

Angel decides to make an entrance, the vampire really can’t help himself, when Balthazar asks for the name of who has his amulet from the watchers. It’s probably the only thing stopping Wesley from singing like a canary, the spineless twerp.

Xander follows him in, staking a vampire before he chunks one of his molotov cocktails at Balthazar to keep him distracted, a whispered word lights it on fire. Buffy cuts Giles ropes off with a sword and the older man gets the useless Wesley out of the way before killing two vampires. Everyone but Wesley is decreasing the number of Eliminati with Balthazar just yelling in the background, the fire having gone out surprisingly fast.

Angel is suddenly pulled towards Balthazar and Xander jumps towards him but is too far way to catch him before the disgustingly fat demon gets his claws in his mate. Xander is attacked by another pair of vampires while he is distracted but Buffy drops an electrical wire into the water the demon is partially submerged in, causing it to drop Angel.

The electrocuted demon gives an ominous message before he finally dies and Xander is sure the _he_ Balthazar was talking about is the mayor. Xander throws the rest of the bottles at the demon and lights them on fire as they walk out.

Xander shrugs when they all look at him. “What? I want to make sure he is good and dead.”

As they are leaving, Giles tells them that the Eliminati vampires had kidnapped the watcher’s shortly after they had left. The pair had only been there minutes before the rest of them had shown up.

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The next morning Xander is reading the _‘Sunnydale Press’_ and there is mention of a small fire in a warehouse on Devereau Street on page three. There is also the death of Allan Finch, the deputy mayor, by ‘barbeque fork’ found only a couple streets away and missing all his blood.

Xander shows this to Giles. “Wonder what he did to piss off the mayor to end up dead or was even doing in that area. It was apparent that Balthazar was talking about Mayor Wilkins last night. Think it could be related?”

“Interesting. I don’t know if it’s related but it’s possible. We need more information on the mayor or Finch.”

“I might check Finch’s apartment out later and see if there is any thing he may have left behind. The mayor has probably already cleaned the man’s office at City Hall out.”

“My goodness! You cant do that, that’s breaking the law.” Xander turns to Wesley with an eyebrow raised before turning back to Giles, who gives a nod.

“Do be careful though. You have no idea what the mayor could have done to the place.” Giles advises before going back to his book and both of them ignore the baby watcher’s spluttering.

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Xander is able to report on the what they found the next morning. There was a hidden safe beneath the rug in the man’s office, which Angel had been able to crack. The rest of the office had been stripped of any papers but it seemed that the mayor had been unaware of the hidden floor safe. Before they left, Xander had made sure to magically erase their presence, he didn’t want the mayor finding out they had been there.

A stash of copies of papers and notes detailing much of what the mayor had been up to the last few years, including his plans to ascend and about some ‘dedication’ that was suppose to make the mayor invincible for 100 days till his ascension. According to Finch’s notes it was already supposed to have happened the night they killed Balthazar but they were unsure if it had. If Mayor Wilkins was invincible then Xander’s plans to deal with the man from a distance were nil. The notes failed to mention exactly what an ascension was, just that all the mayor’s plans lead to it.

There was also some communications between Finch and Balthazar about the dedication. It was possibly that Finch planned to double cross the mayor, especially with keeping so much evidence of the man’s dealings. The presence of a current passport, a plane ticket to the other side of the world, and cash; made it even more likely.

The safe held close to a hundred grand in cash in a briefcase and a few other valuables. Xander kept half of the cash and gave the rest to Giles. He figured that the man deserved it since he put up with two slayers and the rest of them and was no longer being paid by the Watcher’s Council. He made sure to do so when Wesley wasn’t around because the man was likely to tattle to the Council, though there wasn’t much they could do.

The things they find out about the mayor from the copies that Finch kept are horrifying. Mayor Wilkins had done some horrible things over the years and has plans to ascend, whatever that was. Xander suggest finding out if the mayor is truly invincible for the next hundred days and if he is, then they know his ascension will be around graduation.

They were still shuffling through the papers when Cordy came in and asked for a book for psych class. “Check out Giles, the next generation.”

“Hell no! Get your aroused scent away from Cordelia.” Xander jumps up and gets in between Cordelia and Wesley. “Seriously Cordy, don’t you have better taste then that?”

“What? He’s kinda cute in a baby faced way and the suit is nice.” She complains while sending a teasing smile at Wesley.

“He’s the baby watcher and a full on coward, you deserve much better and he wouldn’t last a day against your tongue. Go get your book from Giles and I’ll walk you to class, we still on for our date at Soul Food tonight?” Xander says while glaring at Wesley, with a little growl thrown in.

Cordelia huffs but agrees they are still on and goes to get her book.

Xander leans into Wesley. “Keep away from her. Plus, she’s likely to eat you alive. You wouldn’t last a day.”

“I-. I thought you were with that Angel chap.” Wesley comments as he takes a step back. His tone almost even but Xander can smell the man’s apprehension.

“I am but friends don’t let friends date cowards who happen to be as heavily starched as you are. I would have said with a pole up your ass but it’s likely too clenched for that.” Xander replies with a nasty smile and ignores the upset noise the man makes.

Xander turns away from the man and offers Cordelia his arm. “Catch you guys later.” Then turns his attention to his companion. “So want me to pick you up or do you plan to meet me at the restaurant?”

“Pick me up, duh. This is a date, even if only a platonic one. You really don’t like the new watcher do you?” The raised brow is cute, Xander can admit that even with being ‘married’.

“Nope. No. Nada. I saw him cower under a shelf while Giles fought off a couple vampires and this was after he planned to sing like a canary to that Balthazar demon we just dealt with. The man has literally only staked two vampires and those were in controlled circumstances. Hell, you’ve killed more then that and you _try_ to stay out of our Hellmouth messes.”

“Whoa! I am sensing some not so hidden hostility here.” Cordy joked as Xander stopped outside her classroom.

“So much hostility. I will regale you with more of it tonight but only for a short while, then we can talk about guys and clothes.” He promises with a smirk.

“Deal and you can tell me how Angel _and_ Spike are in bed. See ya.” He only glimpsed the wicked smirk on her face before she turned to walk into class. Her and Faith had been spending too much time together and it was probably bad for his health.

Xander gives a wave before heading back to the library, wishing that the headache named Wesley was gone. He needs to study for a test later in the day, as he had spent a good portion of his night snooping around Finch’s apartment. At least it was Friday and he could sleep in Saturday morning.

He had a present for Cordy he couldn’t wait to show her. He had decided to go ahead and make her protection charms because he wasn’t sure how willing Willow or Michael would be, as neither really liked her. He had actually had a bracelet made for her and had the charmed stones added. It was a delicate silver chain with the flattened round gems set in silver rings. There were a mix of purple amethyst, green quartz, citrine, and blue topaz that he thought was very pleasing to the eye. He hoped it matched enough of her outfits that she would wear it everyday.

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Xander has Willow, Oz, and Michael over for dinner Saturday night, the food provided by Zia and himself. The table was set with a lovely lasagna, fragrant garlic bread, and a colorful salad. Xander had actually helped put together the lasagna under Zia’s watchful eye and had done the salad himself, he felt pretty accomplished.

The trio of practitioners planned to do the next set of protection charms and this time for Oz, who had tagged along with plans to hang out in the game room while they did their mojo. He really needed to not spend so much time with Spike, the vampire was rubbing off on him…well he literally was as well but that was another matter entirely.

They mostly talk about school and being ready to graduate, purposefully not mentioning the mayor’s ascension. Willow was levitating stuff around the table to show Oz about the telekinesis type magic Giles had started showing them and it was something she had gotten a quick grasp on.

She was pleased she had gotten something easier then him, since she said that Xander seemed to pick up most magic like he had already been doing it for years. He didn’t begrudge her because he knew how much she liked to excel at things.

Levitation of objects didn’t come as instinctually to Xander as elemental magic and while his control was perfect, it was harder to achieve overall. Being able to move things around with magic and will was very useful and would be a great asset but Xander figured he would have to work harder for it to come as easily as it did for Willow.

Though he did wonder why this type of magic was proving difficult for him. He had the focus and emotional control needed, proved by his exceptional control over the elements but still it evaded him. Then when he did manage it, he felt as if he used much more power then should be necessary. This type of magic felt so **_disconnected_** from him and he wondered if there was another way to learn it because the way Giles had taught them felt so…something; unnatural wasn’t the right word but he wasn’t sure what was.

Xander and Willow both had very strong but different types of magic. Xander’s own magic was more instinctual then Willow’s would likely ever be but once she gained a better control over her emotions and the flow of her magic, she would be a formidable witch. He could _feel, taste, and smell_ magic and he just _knew_ certain things about it and how to manipulate it.

Maybe their differing magic was enough explanation of why he didn’t grasp this technique as quickly as other things. He never expected to be able to perform all types of magic equally well and wasn’t surprised he had come across something that didn’t come as naturally but it only made him more determined to prefect it.

When they were finished with dinner; Xander, Willow, and Michael headed towards the room off of the library. Xander had already set out the needed supplies before any of the others had arrived, so they would just need to set up before starting.

Oz’s bracelet was going to be a string of beads and all but seven were black onyx. The onyx would help with grounding Oz in his body, mentally, which would help him keep better control of his mind when he shifted on the full moon. The bracelet would be able to stay with him through a very simple binding spell.

It actually aggravated Xander a little that he was so easily able to make the bracelet stay but couldn’t manage clothes. Although that was an entirely different prospect as the clothes would need to be placed into a metaphysical space while shifted to their animal form and then return when they changed back to their human form. Unlike the bracelet which would stay on Oz’s human arm and wolf leg.

The casting of the spells was well ingrained in them by now and they quickly made it through all seven. Then Willow strung the beads onto the wire string before adding the clasps and setting it on a shelf out of the way for the magic to settle.

“So, who’s next?” Willow asks once she has finished with the bracelet.

“We only have us and Wesley left.” Xander mentioned as he closed and locked the door behind them as they left the room.

“What about Cordelia?” It wasn’t hard to miss the way Willow said her name or made a small face. Xander could understand it but at the same time, Cordy had gotten a lot better this year.

“I actually already did hers, as I wasn’t sure you or Michael would want to as she isn’t your favorite person and that could have interfered with the magic. I’m a little worried my own less then pleasant feelings toward Wesley might weaken the protective magic.” He informs them, as they head towards the gaming room.

Willow looks completely surprised. “You-. You did one without us?”

“Yeah. Figured it would be easier. It tired me out more then when we do them together but I still managed.” Xander reassured Willow, not wanting her to think he did something to hurt himself.

“Huh. Oh. Okay. So, what did you do for Cordelia?” He isn’t sure why its so surprising that he had gone ahead and made Cordy’s and the question is quiet.

“I actually spelled the gems first then had the bracelet made. It was pretty simple, silver links with round flattish gems in silver rings. She is probably wearing it, so you’ll be able to see it at school Monday. Are you still planning on the chocker because I’ll need to go pick up the gems you chose from the magic shop and the quartz?” Xander hoped to distract Willow with the last question, as he felt like he was in dangerous territory for some reason.

Willow shook her head with a pout. “No, I don’t think so. I want a chocker but it wouldn’t be something I would wear everyday.”

“Well, we could always do a bracelet now and then a chocker when we finish with everyone else’s. Then you would have two to choose from. Problem solved.” Willow’s smile is bright and pleased at that.

When they get to the game room, Oz and Spike are playing some racing game on the Playstation. They are sitting side by side and hitting each other with their shoulders as they play, neither one taking their eyes off the screen to greet them. They have a few empty soda cans, beer bottles, and snack wrappings strewn around them. This all in little more then an hour.

Xander heads to the mini-fridge and gets himself a soda. “You want a drink or anything?” Before pulling out two more sodas for Willow and Michael and beer for Spike. It’s always best to have a small snack or something sweet after casting to help with the energy drained.

Xander then plops down next to Spike and hands him his beer, as the game is paused, and gets a lovely kiss, even if it tastes like Spike’s awful imported beer. “Having fun? What’s Angel up too?”

“Having fun with the wolf, pet.” Spike turns after purring this out and waggles his eyebrows at Oz with a leer and Oz just waggles his back with an otherwise completely flat expression. Spike always flirts with Oz when he comes over and Oz occasionally flirts back but mostly just ignores the blond vampire. Xander is smart enough not to mention just how attracted Oz is to Spike, that way leads to drama, and has made sure that Spike wont say a word either.

The vampire just huffs before turning back to Xander. “Peaches is staying far away from these evil, evil machines because he is a fuddy duddy and technology scares him.” Xander can’t help but laugh loudly at that statement because Angel really does have a deep mistrust of all technology.

Spike leans in for another kiss, this one is much filthier. Xander pulls back before smirking. “Better keep it PG, there are kiddies in the room.”

“We could teach them something, Pet.” Spike’s leer is almost comically overdone.

“Like what? How to have threesomes with vampires?” This causes Willow to squeak quietly and turn as red as her hair.

Spike notices but just gives her a wink. “Might be a bit beyond them yet. Prolly need to start with something simpler, don’t want to scare ‘em off.”

“You just want to indulge your voyeuristic tendencies. I’m sure when you find your mate, I can talk Angel into watching or I could get him to watch us. Wonder if our bed could fit four?” Xander muses the last question mostly to himself. He has wondered when Spike finds his mate, if they will join them in their bed on occasion or not.

“Gonna be a lot of pricks in one space.” Xander snaps his eyes up to Spike from where he was trying to figure out logistics of four person sex, it could be a little difficult with three on occasion. He figured it might turn into two person sex, just right next to the other couple.

“Your mate is male? How do you know? I kinda though it would be female because you usually pick up chicks when you aren’t in our bed.” Spike interrupts him before he can ask anymore questions.

“Just a feeling, Pet.” Like that’s helpful. Xander wonders for a moment if its…but shakes that thought off before it fully forms in his mind.

There is a clearing of the throat that draws the pair’s attention away from each other. “Could we um-. I mean not that uh-. Lets talk about something else. Yay…sports?” Willow valiantly tries to sputter something out and Xander just as valiantly tries not to laugh.

“Yeah, okay. Spike don’t hog the game all to yourselves if someone else wants to play. Though Willow prefers the Nintendo over there instead of the Playstation. How about you Michael, what’s your game of choice?” Xander turns to the quiet goth dressed teenager.

The teen taps a game on the shelf he’s looking at. “Final Fantasy 7. I like the longer role-playing games.”

Xander can’t stop the excited sound that spills from his mouth or his smile. “Oh man! That is an awesome game. I have it and the strategy guide. No one else feels the love for it. Spike has no patience for it and only likes that there is cussing, even if it is bleeped out. Angel looks at gaming systems like they might eat him and can’t figure out a controller to save his life.”

It had been hilarious when Xander had watched Angel try to play a video game for the first time. You would think that for someone with enhanced vampire reflexes that it would be simple enough to do but no. Then Spike had proved just because they came from a time before such things didn’t mean they couldn’t figure them out because the blond was near unbeatable on any of the racing or fighting games.

Michael and Xander spend the next while discussing the game and how far they’ve gotten. Michael had finished it but Xander just hadn’t had the time but was about three quarters done. They talked about how to get the special characters like Vincent and Yuffie with Xander showing Michael the strategy guide that helped him get Vincent, who was a harder character to acquire then Yuffie.

They ended up talking till the three teens had to leave around midnight to go home but Xander was happy he had found someone who liked Final Fantasy 7 as much as him. There wasn’t any game that came close to it’s awesomeness that he was aware of.

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Once his guests leave, Xander goes to search down his mate who was likely tucked into his favorite oversized chair in the sun room and reading some book. Spike was still where they left him, playing video games and drinking beer. When he found his mate, doing exactly what he figured, he drops himself across the vampire’s lap and nuzzled his face against Angel’s neck for a few moments.

They share a long kiss before Angel goes back to reading his book and Xander lazily dropped a few kisses to the cool pale skin of his mate’s neck. The teen really liked these quiet moments of just being together, just the two of them and maybe Ace. The cat loved to crawl into Xander’s lap if she could manage it, no matter where in the house he was because she had a freakishly accurate Xander radar. Ace had jumped onto his lap moments after he had settled on Angel’s. Xander dozed in his mate’s lap, letting the cat’s purr lull him to sleep.

He wasn’t sure how long he had been asleep before he was moved slightly and felt himself be lifted up in his mate’s arms. Xander barely helped with stripping off his clothes once he was sat on the bed before he was tucked under the covers with a few sleepy kisses. Xander loved sleepy kisses, he loved _all_ the kisses from his mate because they made his skin tingle, and his heart pitter patter, some even made his toes curl. He waited only long enough for Angel to curl up against his back before falling back to sleep.

Xander’s dreams are filled with laying in his mate’s arms underneath an impossibly large full moon in a field of tall grass that stretched endlessly. A soft whisper on the wind can be heard but the words are too indecipherable to make out.

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When Xander wakes up a little after noon, he lays in bed for awhile before deciding to get up and find food, then decide if he plans to take a shower before he gets in the pool. He wonders where Spike is because the vampire obviously hadn’t come to bed with them last night and possibly went out after Xander fell asleep on Angel.

Once he untangles himself from a vampire octopus, which is a little harder then normal because Angel seems determined not to let him go without dozens of sleepy almost kisses. When he finally detaches himself from his mate, he tells Angel to join him in the pool when he wakes up. Xander drags on a pair on silk pajama bottoms, something Angel had turned him onto, and heads toward the kitchen to see what there is to eat.

Ace is sitting on a barstool, cleaning her face and paws likely just finishing with the food from her own bowl sitting on the floor. Zia likes to spoil her with shrimp and fish as part of her raw diet and Ace gladly accepts what she likely thinks is her due for letting them take care of her. While, Spike likes to let loose a little feeder mouse and watch Zia chase and attack the poor thing ferociously.

He is pleasantly surprised when the fridge has the ingredients for one of his favorite omelets or scrambles; fresh eggs, cooked chorizo, tomatoes, peppers, and cheese. It takes no time to get the ingredients together and poured into a pan because omelets or scrambles are something he can easily manage and if Zia isn’t around, one of his go to meals. There is never a lack of eggs, vegetables, at least one cooked meat, and cheese in the fridge at any time. Xander’s repertoire of meals he is able to cook has expanded under Zia’s tutelage but he still likes to stick to simpler things.

When he is about to plate up his food he hears a noise coming down the hall and sees a guy walk into the kitchen, that flushes when he sees Xander. The guy has a sort of punk look; black torn jeans with chains, skull printed shirt, big black boots, and messy multi-colored haired that was likely spiked before a night in Spike’s bed.

It had only taken a discreet sniff to determine that and at least now he knows where the vampire had been. He’s a little surprised that Spike had brought back a guy, the few other times he had brought someone to the house they had been women. The conversation about mates flashes through his head for a second but he dismisses the thought. If this was Spike’s mate, the vampire wouldn’t let them out of his bed for a week and much more heavily marked.

“Hello. Good night?” Xander is bemused by how embarrassed the guys looks and is slightly worried by the hint of apprehension he smells, like it could turn to fear with one wrong move.

“Hey. Yeah. I-um. Can I have some water?” The teen has to bite his lip to stop from laughing at such a tentative question.

“Sure dude. Help yourself, there are a couple bottles in the fridge and juice. Want some breakfast? You likely worked up an appetite in Spike’s bed.” Xander teases gently, hoping it will put the other guy at ease if it doesn’t embarrass him too much.

“I should probably go?” More question instead of statement, as the guy pulls out a bottle of water.

“If you want but you are more then welcome to have some food. It’s good I promise, well unless you’re a vegetarian?” That gets a small shake of the guy’s head and then he hesitantly takes a seat at the breakfast bar. Xander takes that as the guy is staying for food and dishes up part of the omelet on a second plate.

“So, I’m Xander and you?” After a few minutes of silence of them just eating. Xander is the king of plowing through awkward.

“Derek and I know who you are.” Xander raises an eye at that and the guy rushes to explain. “Oh. Um. My dad is half-brachen, so we’re aware of the Master of Sunnydale and his Consort even if we only live on the very edge of Sunnydale. I just didn’t expect to run into anyone as I was looking for something to drink before I left.”

“Well, it’s okay. I’m not going to bite. So, your mom is all human? That makes you something like a quarter-brachen. Any perks from the demon bit?” Xander questions curiously, he knows there are a lot of half and quarter demons running around Sunnydale that don’t normally get involved with the rest of the demon population.

“Yeah. My mom is human but she has some magic and is aware of demons, obviously. I’m a little stronger then your average human, a bit faster, and slightly quicker healing but that’s about it, no physical changes like my dad.” Derek answers before getting up to rinse his plate off and set it in the sink.

“Cool. Probably needed the healing after a night with Spike, he’s very much a biter.” Xander muses fondly.

Derek actually laughs at that and nods. “Yes, he is. I never knew getting bit could feel so good. So, you and him have…?” The guy trails off, as he realizes what he was about to ask but Xander doesn’t feel even a smidge of shame bragging about his sex life. It is very different then most 18 year olds.

“If you mean have we had sex. Yep, he joins me and my mate most of the time. Spike definitely knows what he’s doing in bed.” Xander waggles his eyebrows and Derek actually smirks but continues to blush slightly.

Xander decides to give the guy a break. “I haven’t seen you around the Bronze or this side of town before. You guys live on the other side of Sunnydale University?” It was really almost like another town over by the University, few of the college kids ever ventured towards main street.

“Yeah, barely even in Sunnydale and I go to the University, a sophomore. I met Spike at the bar on campus last night.” Derek offers.

Xander nods because that is one of the places Spike likes to pick up people to bring home, if not a blood house or that ridiculous vamp club that still operated. “What are you going to college for, if you don’t mind me asking? I’m horribly nosy, as you can tell.”

Derek shrugs. “Oh, its fine. Business management and I’m taking a few computer classes. My dad owns a small grocery and deli that sells mostly local stuff and caters a few demon delicacies. I work there when I can and will probably take it over one day.”

“Neat, I’ll have to check it out sometime. Though Zia does most of our shopping.” Spike shuffles into the room completely naked while Xander is talking to Derek.

“Morning, Blondie.” Spike buses a kiss on Xander’s check with a quick. “Morning, Pet.”

Then moves on to nuzzling into a pink cheeked Derek’s neck, giving it a long lick before pulling the surprised guy into a lazy kiss.

“Morning, luv. Good to see you’re still here. Ol’ Spike can drag you back to his bed once he’s put something in his tummy. Unless you’ve to be somewhere?” That gets the vampire a shake of the head.

Spike finally turns to Xander with a pout. “No food left for me?”

“No. Snooze you lose buddy.” Xander breaks slightly under the increased pout. “There is some O-neg in the fridge and I might be talked into making you an omelet if you want, there’s still some stuff left.”

Which means that Xander does end up making another omelet but he has plans to steal half before heading back to his room for a shower then some quality time spent lazing in the pool. He imagines Spike will drag Derek back to his room, as soon as he’s finished eating.

Xander completely ignores Spike’s ‘whispering’ about what he plans to do, once he drags the poor guy back to his room, while he is cooking. The blond vampire is entirely shameless and proud of it. He has a voyeuristic tendency a mile wide that isn’t helped with how narcissistic Spike is.

The teen finally escapes the smell of arousal that is overtaking the kitchen and hopes his mate wakes up soon because he has some sexual tension to work out now.

He’s in luck because when he enters the room Angel is crawling out of bed and Xander waste no time in pulling his mate into the shower with him.

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The primal enhanced teenager is running with Faith and completing the obstacle course Wesley set up. It’s fun watching the man try to keep up and fail miserably. The course is fairly easy compared to some of the parkour runs they’ve done together and they are hardly breaking a sweat.

He had listened to Cordy talk about how good Wesley looked at their friend date the other night, even after he had ranted for a solid five minutes about the man. She hadn’t even let herself be swayed by the nice shiny bracelet he had given her, which she said she liked very much and promised to wear. Xander knows he can’t stop her from dating the guy if she wanted to as she is 18 and free to make her own choices but that wasn’t going to stop him from trying to dissuade her. Because her dating Wesley meant he would have to get used to _more_ Wesley then he already dealt with. Life was so hard sometimes and he would never understand women.

“I want to see you do this at your pace and not just stay with me.” Faith broke into his mental rambling.

“Not really wanting to give more information about myself to the Council through the baby watcher. Plus, I would leave you in the dust.” Xander brags with a smirk that gets him a solid punch to the arm, one that would likely break human bones.

“Ugh. All these tests are lame. He is sucking all the fun out of slaying, pun intended.” The dark haired slayer complains before putting on a burst of speed that he easily keeps up with. Xander is just glad he was doing only the physical ones voluntarily and didn’t have the other tests with the Watcher Council’s shrink.

They complete the rest of the obstacle course quickly before heading back to the library with Wesley trailing behind like an asthmatic grandpa, while the pair are barely breathing hard.

Giles asks if Wesley needs him to handle Buffy’s test, which Wesley declines. Despite the fact that the man is bent over having a hard time breathing and his heart sounds like it’s beating out of the man’s chest. Buffy goes to get changed and Xander goes to talk to Willow.

“Hey, what are you up too?” Xander and Faith hop up onto the counter near Willow.

“Oh, trying to get into the mayor’s files. Giles wanted to see if I could find anything.” Willow tells them as she clicks away at the computer, her nose scrunching up.

“Do you think you’ll be able too?” Xander wonders but he does know that Willow is a genius with a computer. She admits it will take some time but she will get through…eventually.

“Good, we need all the information on him we can get. If you need any help, just ask. Though maybe not with the hacking.” Xander nods when Willow laughs because he is aware him and computers are mostly unmixy for anything more then the most basic things or playing games.

“You guys going to the Bronze tonight?” Faith asks.

Willow shakes her head. “No. Snyder is making me tutor Percy West.”

Xander can’t help but make a face. “That sucks. The boy never pays attention in class and Snyder is an asshole. I mean you have enough stuff you have to do then try to get idiots to do the work they are supposed to have already done.”

Which gets a smile from Willow. “That’s what I told him but the way Snyder said it gave a total threatening vibe. So…” Then she just shrugs before turning her full attention back to the computer.

When Buffy comes back in changed, Xander hops back off the counter and follows her to the obstacle course for a second run. He figures that it is a likely possibility he will see Wesley faint and that will make his day.

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Later that night; Xander, Angel, and Spike are at the Bronze. Xander had spent the last few nights with Oz, who’s getting further along with his ability to transform before the moon rises. Xander hopes it wont take much longer till he is able to change without the moon and he thinks the main problem is that Oz is unwilling to give completely into the instincts without being forced by the moon.

Xander is sandwiched between the two, when he notices Percy West getting a drink at the bar. He wiggles his way from between the two vampires before heading toward the tall basketball player.

Xander grabs the boys arm. “Aren’t you suppose to be tutoring with Willow for a paper about now?”

“No, Snyder told her to do it for me.” The boy tries to jerk his arm out of Xander’s grip but he just tightens it.

“I think you should follow me, we need to have a little talk and clear up this misunderstanding.” Then he proceeds to drag the boy out of the back of the club and can see he picked up two vampire shadows.

Xander throws the boy out the back door, completely ignoring his yelling, then slams the basketball player against a wall. Getting a good grip on one of his hands. “Shut up or I’ll break your hands. Then you wont be able to play.” That makes Percy shut right up and stop struggling.

“Now, you are going to go home and do your school work. You sure as hell aren’t going to let Willow do them or I will break both of your hands, a finger at a time. She has much better things to do then waste her time on idiot jocks. Do you understand?” Xander calmly explains.

The tall boys nods his head rapidly and keeps glancing behind Xander before looking back at him. If there is one thing that Angel and Spike are good at, it is instilling fear in someone. The smell of the boys fear is thick in the air and it makes Xander tighten his grip just a bit more.

“Good. I’m glad we had this talk. Why don’t you run along, you don’t know what’s lurking in the dark.” Xander lets Percy go and takes a step back and the boy almost runs down the alley away from them.

“So fellas, what do you say we head home and imitate what we were doing on the dance floor without clothes?” Xander turns back around to find both vampires in game face, half hidden in the shadows.

His answer is to be pushed against the wall, he had previously had Percy pinned to, and his mouth ravished by Angel with Spike attacking his neck. This gives him hope for a wonderful night.

\----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Xander is chatting with Willow and Buffy, when Percy comes up to them and hands Willow two outlines, a bibliography, and an apple before scurrying away.

“What was that?” Buffy asks confused.

“Did you do something to him Xander, cause he looked like he was terrified of you?” Willow turns to him with a frown, pegging what happened immediately. She isn’t his oldest friend for nothing.

“What? No. Well, I did run into him at the Bronze last night and mentioned how I thought he was supposed to be tutoring with you and working on a paper. He thought Snyder wanted you to write it for him but we cleared that misunderstanding up.” Xander gives a sweet and innocent smile that usually means he is lying through his teeth. Though that is what happened, minus the threats of violence.

“Cool. So, Bronze tonight Willow?” Buffy asks before Willow can possibly work up a rant but it looks like it would have been only half-hearted when she agrees to meet Buffy at nine.

“You and Michael still on for meeting again tomorrow? I figured we could do yours next?” Xander mentions before they split up for classes and gets an enthusiastic agreement from Willow.

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“So, you agree to handle the situation? I know it’s a hard decision to choose which one to take out first because you’ll possibly be facing vengeance from the other, if they survive the death of their mate. Though I believe Angel’s mate will be a much softer target though and I wouldn’t want to face a primal’s anger over losing a mate.” Mayor Wilkins leans back in his chair and faces the demon before him.

“Yes, I can handle it. I already have a plan to take care of the Master of Sunnydale’s mate without being caught or leaving evidence. It will severely weaken the Master and I will be able to take Angelus out then.” The demon reassured the mayor. He already had a group of human criminals that had no idea who their target really was because it had been near impossible to recruit other demons to go against the Master and his mate.

“Good. Good. It would have been much easier if I could of just had his soul removed but I don’t think it would be possible now and I think that his mate would keep him from joining me. Such a waste of a good demon.” Mayor Wilkins shakes his head before dismissing the demon because he has another meeting with the Police Chief. The mayor wonders if he could bribe or threaten the man into pressing false charges against the slayers or any of their group but dismisses the thought.

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“Anyone think it seems pretty strange some demon just shows up with these Books of Ascension, capital letters and all, just when we’re trying to figure out what that is?” Xander asks the group.

The slayers had told them about a demon trying to sell the books to them for five thousand to help get out of Sunnydale. Demons don’t just walk up to a slayer, usually, unless they are trying to kill them.

“Yes, very strange indeed.” Giles agrees after complaining about demons wanting money and not the still beating heart of a virgin. Xander thinks it’s an upgrade for sure and shows adaptability.

“Well, I’ll go to Willy’s and see if I can find an id and address for the demon. Maybe Angel and I can negotiate with him and if not, well I’m sure we can come up with the money. We need to at least get a look at these books and see if they’re real. Any idea yet what an Ascension is?” Everyone had been searching for information about it since they had come across the term.

Surprisingly, it wasn’t either of the watchers that recalled a mention of it but Willow that is able to, though she found it in one of the books Giles didn’t wish for her to have access to. Though the book only has a journal passage about there being an Ascension the next day, a plea for god to help them, and that was the last heard of the entire place.

Whatever it is, isn’t good and they have no way to stop the mayor that they are aware of because the man is invincible till the Ascension.

“Any chance this is related to the First? Could it be pulling strings or something?” Xander asks because it would suck for two ‘big bads’ to be working together.

“We can’t be sure but I’ve found nothing to suggest it. Though I haven’t found anything about the Ascension either, so it can not be ruled out.” Giles answer is far from reassuring.

Cordelia walks in while they are all talking and asks Wesley for help with her English paper over dinner. Xander thinks it may be the most transparent excuse for a date he has ever heard but doesn’t say a word because she had made her desire to date Wesley clear. She saunters out, leaving the man partially stunned, and Xander idly wonders if Wesley is a virgin.

Xander heads out after getting confirmation from Giles and goes out to his Jeep to meet Angel at Willy’s. A quick flash of the bar and a feeling of _urgency_ and _questioning_ through the bond should be enough to gain his mate’s attention. The school parking lot is deserted and the lights are out again in the back parking lot.

Xander doesn’t notice it till he has already tried to turn the key on the Jeep which refuses to turn over but there are strange smells around his vehicle and a very peculiar scent. It takes him less then a second to place it after he smells it but he takes off as fast as he can, as the vehicle finally starts.

There is a flash of heat and pressure against his back that blows him a few feet through the air and the explosion leaves a ringing in his ears. He just lays panting on the ground for a few moments and thanks whatever was looking out for him because it was his stuck ignition that gave him enough time to smell the explosives and get out of the Jeep. If the bomb had been rigged properly and he had turned the key, he would have gone up in the explosion that just destroyed his Jeep.

Xander drags himself off the ground and takes a few moments to focus; the fire takes a couple minutes to sputter out completely but it is little help, as the car it totally destroyed. His Jeep is little more then a burned husk from the explosion and he doubts anything in it is salvageable.

He trudges back to the library to warn the rest of the gang and tell them what happened. He’s pretty sure his anger is winning out over his fear of burning to death at this moment but he isn’t sure how long that will last. Xander is really over people trying to burn him to death, couldn’t they find another way.

The teen is in the middle of explaining what happened and that they all need to be careful because he doesn’t know if it was specifically him they were after or if they are all being targeted, when Angel bursts through the library doors.

The vampire is on him in a second, in full game face, pulling him into a kiss and running desperate hands over his body. “I’m fine, Angel. Smelt it before it blew up. Though I am very pissed they destroyed my Jeep, I really loved that thing.” Xander can’t help but complain, he really did love that Jeep because Angel had given it to him and it had been his first car with lots of _good_ memories. Angel had given into Xander’s desire to make out and more, up on Lover’s Lane, many times because the teen had told him it was a traditional teenaged thing to do and he didn’t want to miss out. Plus, the vampire hardly ever denied him anything and would certainly never say no to kisses or more.

Angel is muttering in Gaelic and Xander is only able to make out a few endearments mixed with threats of what the vampire plans to do to the ones that did this. He can imagine just what Angel plans for the ones who did this.

“Any ideas who did this, mo shearc?” Angel asks when he is finished with his inspection, though he still has a tight hold on the teen. (My love.)

“None, except they were humans and I might be able to identify them by scent if I found them. I’ll need to go back out there and see if I can track it but they likely left in a vehicle and I wont be able to follow that or the smell from the explosion will have covered everything else up.” Xander hadn’t gotten to that bit of information yet and it causes disbelief to run through some of the group.

“Why would humans do this?” Buffy seemed entirely confused by this.

“Just because someone is human doesn’t mean they’re good, Buffy. Humans are just as evil, if not more so then demons.” Xander knows she has a view on the world that said humans-good and demons-bad but it didn’t work like that. At least Faith knows better but she got the knowledge from a home life worse then Xander’s.

When Xander leaves with Angel, they walk Giles and Wesley out so they can check their cars but both are clean. Then head towards the burnt remains of Xander’s Jeep, the teen walks around it trying to pick up the scents he had only gotten a hint of before the car had blown. The teen is unable to catch anything as the smell of smoke and burned metal and plastic fill the air, obliterating everything else.

Angel’s in game face and has an almost too tight hold on his hand, just staring at the destroyed Jeep. Xander turns to his mate after he doesn’t find anything and buries his face into a pale neck with his arms wrapped tightly around the vampire. They just stand there for a few minutes and bask in each others presence; this has been the closest they have come to losing one another.

This attack is starting to look like it is specifically targeted at Xander and whoever it is, could be targeting him because he is the Consort to the Master of Sunnydale. Angel has a long list of enemies and plenty of upstart demons who want to take his place but there haven’t been any attacks against Xander before. Most who have gone after Angel have done so directly and been put done with extreme prejudice. Though the majority of demons in the community fear Angel too much to even look at him wrongly but it could be possible for some demon to employ humans, something easily expendable to them.

There are a slew of human criminals in Sunnydale; the Hellmouth’s influence affects the humans, as well, by magnifying their bad traits. Such as a person who has a bad temper could turn into an abusive asshole or it makes addictions almost impossible to overcome.

“When we find them, I am going to rip their throat out for attacking you.” Angel reassures him before pulling Xander to his own car.

The teen nods because he is in complete agreement, these jerks tried to kill him and he has no desire to leave them alive to try it again. “After you question them. We need to find out who is behind it because I doubt some random humans decided to blow up my Jeep.”

The terrifying smile on Angel’s face tells Xander that his mate it very much going to enjoy ‘questioning’ those who set the bomb on his car.

The pair leave to head to Willy’s, as was Xander’s original goal before his Jeep blew up, to find out more about the demon who tried to sell the books to the slayers. The teen will have to mourn the death of his first car later, it was much too young to suffer such a violent death.

\----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

The next evening; Giles, Wesley, Willow, Oz, and Cordelia are at the mansion and the slayers are out on patrol. Xander and Angel hadn’t wanted to move the Books of Ascension out of the protected mansion, where they would be vulnerable. The mansion had the strongest wards and the library had none because they couldn’t make any last without them being drained or twisted by being directly over the Hellmouth.

Wesley had mentioned he didn’t feel comfortable leaving them in a vampire’s hands but one look from Angel had shut him up. Xander knew he was included in the man’s mistrust because he wasn’t completely human anymore and Angel’s mate but he couldn’t care less what the man thought of him; though he wasn’t willing to let the man disparage him or his mate in their own home. Xander got a little kick from the hint of fear coming from the man when faced with Angel and Spike.

Angel had easily persuaded the demon, Skyler, to take a reduced amount for the books but Xander had been more of the mind to just take them. Skyler hadn’t been very forthcoming with how he had ‘procured’ the books but the horned demon had no desire to help someone Ascend; so had decided to approach the slayers and was probably already far away from Sunnydale.

The five books were all in some ancient language that was going to take them some time to translate but they all hoped it would give them a way to stop the Ascension. Together they hoped that they might be able to translate them quicker. Plus, they wanted to make sure to keep the books out of the mayor’s hands even if they weren’t sure the man needed them to Ascend.

Willow had finally gotten into the Mayor’s files but something had been tripped causing them to start being deleted as she was searching. She had gotten only a fraction of the mayor’s files before they had been completely deleted and so far there was little information they didn’t already have because of Finch’s records. Though they had found mention of the arrival of the Box of Gavrok and a few articles about an archeologist dig that mentioned a Lester Worth, a volcanologist. Willow planned to track down information about the volcano guy and the watchers had heard of the Box of Gavrok, though neither were sure what it was.

Oz suggests they check out the Hall of Records to see if they could find out anymore about Mayor Wilkins, that there might be paper records that haven’t been destroyed. Oz, along with Willow, Wesley, and Cordelia go to the Hall of Records. Cordelia had only tagged along because she liked to listen to Wesley talk and enjoyed making the man flustered.

Angel, Xander, Giles, and even Spike stayed behind to start translating the Books of Ascension. Xander had talked Spike into helping them translate because the blond vampire was very good with languages; knowing well over a dozen human and demon languages. Giles wasn’t pleased but it helped make sure Spike stayed out of trouble and they needed all the help they could.

Xander had to agree to indulging the vampire’s voyeuristic tendencies in some way which wasn’t much of a burden because he had his own. This also kept Spike away from Oz, which was of the good because the vampire couldn’t help but flirt with the musician and that made Willow less then pleased.

When the group gets back from the Hall of Record they tell everyone about how Mayor Richard Wilkins the Third is actually the first and second, as well. The man is over a hundred years old and was the one to have found the town of Sunnydale. So, the mayor either isn’t human or has possible sold his soul and has likely been preparing for this Ascension for a lot longer then they thought.

None of this is good news and they break up the meeting in less then good spirits. The mayor is currently invincible and has been around a lot longer then they expected. He plans to Ascend which they know nothing about but at least they have the Books of Ascension, which will hopefully give them the information they will need to stop it. Xander reminds them they have the books and that they know when the Ascension will be; that they don’t normally get 100 days to prepare for the bad guy.

\----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Xander and Spike are on their way to Willy’s to meet Angel and for a game of poker but the vampire keeps delaying them by pushing Xander into various walls to kiss him. The teen can’t help but laugh as Spike tries to drag him back when he wiggles out of the blonds’ grip.

“Fags!” The slurs causes Xander to start because he hadn’t really been paying attention to their surroundings and if there were other people around. Spike growls next to him but Xander just shakes his head, no point in starting something with some close-minded idiot.

That’s when Xander hears a large group of people closing in and realizes Spike has heard it as well. There really is no reason for such a large group of humans to be in this part of town, as they normally end up a snack for some demon. The pair duck down an alley that’s a shortcut to the bar and is completely dark which should give them an advantage against their human stalkers.

Xander sends a quick image to Angel to show his mate where he is along with a feeling of _urgency_ because he can hear close to twenty heartbeats closing in on them from both sides of the alley. No matter how good he and Spike are, it will only take a lucky hit for one of them to go down.

There’s a rattling of chain and Xander can make out a looped length of it hanging from one of the human’s hands. The rest are holding a variety of bats, wrenches, and knives. A few have large lights that they set down to give the humans something to see with and it’s obvious they planned this.

“Not going to survive this time. Get them!” The leading member, that came from the other end of alley, shouts and that’s when Xander realizes his scent is familiar.

Xander’s anger turns quickly to rage as he realizes this is one of the people who blew up his Jeep. He uses that rage to fuel the fire that he conjures and hurls at the one who yelled. The man screams as he goes up in flames and Xander feels vindictive pleasure about causing the man the same pain he planned for him.

A couple of their attackers yell in fear before fleeing but most are just egged on and attack them suddenly. The limited width of the alley keeps them from being attacked by all their opponents at once but they are still facing multiple attackers at once.

He doesn’t waste time gloating before moving onto the next human, snapping their neck before blocking a bat from hitting him in the face but it feels like it might have broken his arm. Xander has changed enough to give himself claws and teeth to help because the only other weapon he has on him is a single stake. Which actually kills a human easier then a vampire because more then a direct hit in the heart will work. A stake to the throat works really well he comes to find out.

Spike is tearing through the humans and has blood dripping down his face from ripping throats out. One of the humans manages to shove a piece of broken bat into Spike but gets him in the stomach and not the heart. Spike rips it out before stabbing the human in the face with it.

The smell of blood and guts is thick in the air when Xander feels Angel get closer. His mate jumps down from the roof of one of the buildings and lands on one of people attacking them before he launches himself at another.

Xander isn’t sure how long it takes before he is dropping an attacker and turning to find the only other standing attackers being held up by Spike and Angel; who have their faces buried in ruined throats. There are bodies scattered all around the alley and a few are still alive but severely injured.

When Angel and Spike finish with their last opponent they take a look around as well with a bit of surprise on their face. It has been a very long time since Angel has slaughtered any humans and Spike hasn’t killed any since moving in with them. Xander is in a bit of shock himself, never having killed a human before but feels no guilt as they had attacked with plans to kill him and Spike.

Xander shakes his head to get on track. “We need to get rid of the bodies before someone comes to check it out. I have something at the house that will make them burn a lot quicker. Load them into that dumpster down at the other end and I’ll be back as quick as I can.”

He leaves before either vampire can say anything. Jumping up to catch the fire escape on one of the buildings before pulling himself up and quickly making his way to the roof. It doesn’t take long to get out of that part of town and make his way closer to the mansion before leaping off a building and running the rest of the distance on the ground.

Once he makes it to the mansion, Xander makes a few sachets of herbs and jars of oil before putting them in a small case to keep them safe in his pocket before heading back to the alley. He hopes no one has gone to investigate the noise yet.

Once he gets back to the alley, all the bodies are stacked in the mostly empty dumpster. Xander throws the herb bags and very strong smelling oil in before whispering a few words in Sumerian and stepping back. A massive black fire erupts out of the large dumpster that should quickly eat through flesh and bone. It was something he had found in one of the darker grimoire he had and thought may come in handy if they ever needed to get rid of a demon carcass at some point.

“Get anything from the ones that were alive?” Xander asks as he watches the fire.

“Yeah. One of them described the demon that hired them and it was one that tried to take over as Master of Sunnydale months ago. They escaped before I killed them and I made a mistake thinking that they wouldn’t cause anymore trouble. Shouldn’t take long to track them down. Let’s go home.” Angel wraps his arms around Xander and gives his neck a soft kiss.

“I can totally smell that you two got off while I was gone. Bet your pants are sticky.” Xander teases as he turns around and looks up into the gold ocher eyes of his mate. The blood that had coated their face and neck was gone, likely licked off by the other and they both smelled like sex.

Angel looks a little sheepish before shrugging and sending _arousal_ flooding through their mate bond. Xander just shakes his head because really…vampires.

The group starts making their way back to the mansion when they hear the sirens of a fire truck. They aren’t sure who called but there is little evidence of fire as it is already starting to go down and there is almost no smoke coming off of it.

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They are all laying in bed after a shower and a couple hours of working out the rest of their adrenaline. Xander is wonderfully trapped between two attentive vampires and close to dozing off.

Xander had needed to use some salve on one of the deeper cuts he had gotten from a knife and used the healing spell that was for a broken bone before taking a shower. His arm had been aching horribly before he had fixed it and slightly after; it probably hadn’t helped that he used it after it had been broken but it couldn’t have been helped. Then some blood from both Angel and Spike had taken care of any aches and pain his own healing hadn’t. The pair hadn’t been pleased when they realized he had a broken arm but had kept their displeasure to themselves…mostly.

“You okay?” Angel asks as he presses a soft kiss to Xander’s lips, a cool hand running up and down his side.

“Fine, why? I told you my arm stopped aching once I had some of your blood.” The teen reassures his mate.

“That isn’t what I meant. You killed humans for the first time tonight.” Angel is looking at him with worried eyes and his tone says he isn’t sure if he should remind Xander.

“Oh...well. It was shocking once we were done but they attacked us. Plus, they had all intentions to kill me and they are the ones who blew up my Jeep.” That gets a growl from both vampires and their arms tightening around him, neither like to be reminded of what happened to his Jeep. “It’s not like I plan to go kill more humans; well, as long as they don’t try to kill me. It was only reaction tonight…to keep alive and protect Spike.” Xander reasoned and honestly…he probably should feel more for killing a handful of humans tonight but he was protecting himself and Spike. It was like killing vampires but with more mess, at least vamps had the decency not to bleed all over you.

“Are you okay?” Xander asked because Angel really hadn’t, purposely, killed humans in a long time.

“I’m fine. I’m a demon, a vampire, and it rejoiced in the blood I spilled tonight. The soul bit didn’t put up much protest because they planned to kill you and I’ll do anything to protect you.” Angel assured his mate.

Xander had only taken down around five and a couple of those had been left alive but badly injured because he had held back some due to the fact they were humans. Spike had killed about twice as many as he had and had been thrilled to be able to kill humans again. While, Angel had taken about the same as Xander because he had gotten there late. The pair of vampires had glutted on the blood from their attackers and it had made them both very…passionate.

This isn’t something they can tell Giles and the rest because they wouldn’t understand. Buffy still can’t seem to believe that humans can be as bad or worse then demons. This would cause the group to believe they were going evil or already were. Buffy and Willow don’t have much of a grey area in certain things and killing humans was a big no for them. Wesley was likely to tattle to the Watcher’s Council and get them hunted down by its hit men.

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It was surprising when Angel captured the demon who hired the humans to kill Xander, the very next night. The demon, a tall scaly grey thing, was ratted out by a vampire who had asked a favor from Angel, once he had given the older vampire the information. The vampire wished to make a childe and had been granted the right by Angel; he was only the second vampire to be granted the right since Angel took over as the Master of Sunnydale.

Then in a very public display, tortured the demon for hours till it could no longer beg for death. Angel set it up at the main warehouse he used for meetings and sent the word out; by midnight the warehouse was packed. It spilled that is was hired by the mayor to kill Xander, so that Angel would be distracted, early in the evening; likely hoping that its death would be quick. The demon planned to attack Angel once he was weakened by the lose of his mate, so that it could gain the position of Master of Sunnydale.

Spike was enthusiastic about helping but Xander only watched, even if he wished he didn’t have too. Torture really wasn’t his thing, the screams bothered his sensitive ears after a while and he was more likely to make it a quick death. But he had to be here and show that he still stood, that he was uninjured and strong; along with standing by his mate’s side as Angel dealt out the punishment for trying to harm the master vampire’s consort.

What followed was a terrifying lesson in just how exceptional Angel was at torture; it was easy to discern the two master vampire’s enjoyment, as well. The scent of fear and pain from the demon, filled the air with its bitter-rank smell. It wasn’t surprising when the scent of fear grew even more from some of the observers, as they watched the main attraction of the night. None could be left with doubt of what would happen to those who went after Xander and were shown exactly what Angel would do to those who tried to hurt his mate.

Xander was glad when the demon finally took it’s last breath but never let his desire for the activities to be over quickly show. When the offending demon was dead, Xander walked up to his mate and gave him a deep kiss; showing all the demons his appreciation of Angel’s actions, even if he was most appreciative that the show was over.

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Angel has Xander tucked against his chest as they float in the pool. They have a shade sail over the shallower half of the pool, so that the California sun doesn’t roast either of them. Angel is still sensitive to strong, direct, sunlight and he doesn’t want Xander to burn when he spends hours floating in the pool.

Angel is patiently listening to Xander complain about Buffy trying to read his mind. Apparently, Buffy had gotten the blood of a demon on her and that had given her telepathy. Thankfully, Xander’s thoughts are protected because of his mate bond with Angel; as vampires are immune to the invasion of a telepath. Neither want the slayer to find out the details from the other week.

When the teen is finally done with his rant about Buffy, he moves on to Wesley and how the creep was looking at Cordy the day before at some pep rally. Angel hides his smile in his mate’s wet hair because he really has no room to talk.

“I feel you smiling!” Xander accuses him.

“I’m sorry, mo chroí . (My heart) You do know they only have a decade between them, maybe. Where we have a couple centuries.” The master vampire tries not to wince thinking about that but it is something he has long gotten over; there is nothing that would cause him to give up his mate.

“Whatever. That’s different because we’re mates. He is a cowardly, filthy, ogling…something! What Cordy sees in him, I’ll never know.” His mate signs dramatically before dropping his head back on Angel’s chest.

“You should give the guy a break. He isn’t that horrible.” Angel isn’t really sure that’s the truth but feels they need to cut the new watcher some slack. Xander really hasn’t liked the man since he arrived and the way Wesley was going to give Angel up to Balthazar, has pretty much solidified his mate’s thoughts about the man.

“Ugh.” Is Xander’s completely intelligent reply.

Angel just shakes his head at his uncooperative mate before pulling Xander up into a kiss. They spend another hour lazily floating and kissing in the pool as the sun sets completely. Angel then drags his mate out of the pool and into the shower because Xander is fairly adamant about bathing before and after using the pool.

The pair plan to help Faith look for the second demon and divest it of it’s heart to help cure Buffy of her telepathy. When they meet up Xander and Faith are decked out in layers, long sleeves, and gloves. Neither want to get any blood on them, though they mainly plan to play back up to Angel; who happens to be immune to the blood of this demon.

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Xander feels betrayed; the lunch lady was the one who was planning to kill everyone. He had been distracted by Jell-O when he had seen her dropping RAT POISON in a large pot. Xander had booked it out of the kitchen and into the cafeteria to warn everyone. The lunch lady had chased him out with a massive butchers knife that he was sure didn’t belong in a school.

It had been easy enough to knock the knife out of her hand as she went to slash at him with it and then he had, unapologetically, backhanded her; sending her crashing into a table and a couple students.

He hardly ever ate anything out of the cafeteria anymore because he made his own lunches, or Zia did, but from this point on he would _never_ eat anything from there again. The thought of poisoning food was sacrilegious.

Afterwards, he found out that a student named Jonathon had planned to kill himself. He had seen the boy around a few times but had never spent any time with him; he was one of the Willow-grade geeks. The boy was in a load of trouble for bringing a gun to school and had been suspended. Xander wonders what happened that would drive the boy to suicide; he knows the only way he would ever take his life was if he lost Angel and had depleted every way to bring him back but failed to do so.

It isn’t till the next day, that Xander gets a laugh out of Buffy finally finding out her mother and Giles had sex during the ‘candy’ incident and that they have seen each other occasionally since then. It was something he knew because he could smell it but hadn’t felt the need to tell her because it was their business. Watching Giles walk into a tree was the high point of the week.

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Xander had a crying Cordelia in his arms and had no idea what to do or why she was crying. He had seen that something was bothering her at school when they were all talking about colleges and had pulled her aside to ask what was wrong. Cordy hadn’t been willing to say then but Xander had talked her into coming to the mansion that evening because she said she had plans after school.

When Cordy had gotten there, Xander already had a stack of movies and a platter of snacks and ice cream ready. He hadn’t been sure how bad the problem was but when Cordy just clung to him when he gave her a hug and then he felt tears on his chest, Xander knew it had to be big.

“Can I ask what’s wrong now? Or should I just not mention it? Maybe, you need me to kill something or beat someone up? Wesley, maybe?” Xander tentatively asks, though the last question is hopeful and gets a small laugh, as the tears seemed to lessen and she steps back. He has no idea what could bother Cordy this much, she hardly ever showed her softer side and would likely verbally eviscerate someone if they said she had one.

Then words started pouring out of Cordy’s mouth, she tried to keep her tone even but it was easy to see that she was barely holding it together. “My dad made a little mistake on his taxes-for twelve years. They took everything; no dresses, no car, no cell phone. We’re living in a small apartment because we lost the house. I’ve had to sell some of my clothes just so I had some money. I’m working to buy my prom dress. Worst, I’ve gotten into USC, Columbia, Duke, and Colorado State but my college fund doesn’t exist anymore.”

“Oh, Cordy.” Xander just pulls her back into a tight hug because this isn’t something he can beat up to make it go away. He knew whatever had been bothering her had to be bad for her to be so affected but he had never expected this.

They sit there for a while in silence while Xander thinks about what he can do. It doesn’t take him long to figure something out but he isn’t sure how Cordy’s going to act when he offers.

“So, I might have a solution to some of it?” The teen offers quietly.

“What?” She sits back and looks at him with confusion.

“Well, the prom is easy. I’m thinking a early graduation gift might be coming your way in the form of a shopping trip. We could carry Faith along as well, I’m not sure she has the money for a dress either.” He had been stumped on what to get Cordy for graduation and he thought this would work out well; getting her a dress for prom and maybe for graduation.

Cordy thinks about it for a few minutes before agreeing. “I accept. Now, what about school?” He knew she wouldn’t turn down a shopping trip but it was the next part that he wasn’t sure she would agree to.

“I’m not sure what school you prefer but they’re all really good ones. First, we can have you apply for school aid and scholarships for this year if it isn’t too late. Your grades are good enough that you should get something and your new financial status, might allow you some state aid. After that I’m thinking a private scholarship from…well I can’t think of a prestigious sounding name for myself.”

“What do you mean?” She just looks at him in confusion.

“I can pay for the left over amount of your first year, after scholarships and stuff. It’s not like I’m lacking in money because Angel is loaded and I have stashed away quite a large amount that I’ve made myself. Then after your first year, you can work on more scholarships and such and I would just cover the rest if it was needed. It would be cool if you went to USC because then you could work for Angel, that way you’d be making money as well, and we could still hang out. If you really don’t want that, then we could try for educational loans but they would have to be in your name without your parents as a backer.” Xander nodded to himself, that seemed like a perfect plan.

“You’re really being serious! You-. You can’t-. I can’t let you do that.” Cordelia protested, once she realized he was being completely serious.

“I don’t see why not. I’m your friend and you need help, this is something I can easily do. If you want to pay me back in the future or something, you can but it isn’t a big deal. You deserve to go to college and get out of this, literal, hellhole. You know, I think Faith has been thinking about getting away but I’m not sure if she will. Maybe, you can drag her butt with you.” Xander really didn’t think the Hellmouth was a good place for Faith to stay because the girl had some issues because of her upbringing and the Hellmouth just enhanced them.

“I have to think about this. It’s really big and no matter how much I want to shout yes, I need to think about it. But I can start applying for financial aid and scholarships and hope it isn’t too late.” Cordy just shook her head in disbelief. “You’re right about Faith though. She doesn’t really like living in Buffy’s shadow but doesn’t want to drop Sunnydale in her lap when Buffy is thinking about going away for college.”

Xander lets the less then subtle change of subject happen without comment. They talk about how Buffy has suddenly gotten all gung-ho about taking down the mayor so she can leave after graduation. The slayers, Xander, and Angel all plan to try to intercept the Box of Gavrok, which happens to house some great demonic energy that the mayor needs to chow down on for the Ascension; though they hadn’t found out exactly what was in the box, they knew they needed to keep it out of Mayor Wilkins hands and had plans to destroy it.

Cordelia even gets Xander to talk about his possible plans for the future, though none of it is concrete. He is considering the possibility of a architecture school in LA, USC has one actually, but was likely to start in construction or at a trade school to see if he had any true interest in the subject. There was also the fact that he enjoyed magic so much and wouldn’t mind working at a magic shop of some sort; so he could share his own knowledge and learn at the same time. But if there is one thing Xander has, it’s time; so he sees no need to rush to choose something to do. He has every intention of settling into LA before he even thinks about finding a school or job.

Xander gets Cordelia to admit to being interested in business, acting, and even public relations classes and majors. She tells him how USC has a school of business and dramatic arts, along with cinematic arts and communication. They even have a bachelor program for business administration in cinematic arts. Cordy apparently preferred this school because she would get to keep the lovely California weather, where her other college choices had much colder weather. Xander hoped she would chose USC so they could still hang out because they had actually become pretty good friends but whatever made her the happiest.

They spend a couple hours talking before Cordy has to head home and Xander has to get ready to help intercept the arrival of the box. The few files that Willow had gotten, that weren’t copies of what Xander had stolen from Finch, were turning out to be very helpful. They had included the date that the Box of Gavrok was supposed to arrive.

The box was a very important piece to the mayor’s Ascension and Xander couldn’t help but wonder why the man would wait till the last minute to acquire it. The other bit of information they have is about Lester Worth, who is actually a professor at UC Sunnydale and had discovered some fossil buried under an old lava bed. They weren’t sure how that was important to the mayor but Giles had plans to meet with the man, once they had the Box of Gavrok destroyed.

\----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

The retrieval group plus the watchers are standing around the Box of Gavrok, when Buffy starts to lift the lid slowly and a few legs start crawling out. The lid is slammed shut, cutting off the escaping legs, and they all jump away from the box.

“So…no opening the box.” That gets an agreement from everyone.

Xander, Angel, Buffy, and Faith had all staked out the small airport just on the outskirts of Sunnydale and waited for the scheduled arrival. There had been a few vampires but nothing else, guarding the limo that was waiting for the tattooed man who had arrived with the box handcuffed to his arm.

They had quickly dusted the vampires and knocked out the man before Angel had crushed the man’s hand together to pull the cuff off. The multiple snaps of bone had been a little sickening but no one had put up any protest. It had been better then Faith’s suggestion to cut the hand off.

Now they were in possession of one Box of Gavrok, with plans to destroy it. Willow and Oz had been sent earlier to pick up something from the magic store, as one of the needed ingredients was fairly rare and Xander didn’t keep it on hand. The rest of the concoction was already mixed together in a small cauldron and was just waiting for the last thing.

They all turn when Oz runs into the library and slams down a piece of paper. “They got us as we were leaving the Magic Box. I staked a few vamps before I was knocked out and when I woke up, I found this laying on my chest.”

The short notes tells them if they want Willow back, they will give the mayor the Box of Gavrok and the Books of Ascension. It has a number to call for them to set up a meeting. This sends everyone into a frenzy before Xander whistles sharply.

“Okay. Angel and I will go get the books. If we’re quick we can bring them here and copy what hasn’t been translated. We-.” Buffy interrupts him.

“Haven’t we learned the hard way not to scan books into a computer. Remember Malcolm?”

“This won’t be connected to the internet and we will just be copying and printing the pages. We won’t be scanning it onto the computer. I don’t think we’ll have problems. If we don’t have time, oh well, because getting Willow back is the biggest priority.”

Wesley cleared his throat loudly before interrupting their conversation. “Excuse me but we can’t let either of these get into the mayor’s hands. We can not hold one girl’s life above the rest of the world; the possible consequences of this Ascension could be catastrophic. We will destroy the box.”

Xander lets the man finish before he lays him out with a punch. Everyone just looks at him but Oz nods. “Exactly.”

“What? I have no time for someone who plans to sacrifice Willow for some greater good bullshit. Giles call the mayor and try to give us enough time to possibly get the books copied. We’re going to have to find some other way to stop him now.”

Xander and Angel leave the library at a run, getting in Angel’s car and speeding away. No body has any time to waste. The Books of Ascension are barely halfway finished being translated; though they had been making steady progress. When they get to the mansion, Xander grabs a few extras that will come in handy if he gets the opportunity to use them.

When they get back to the school, they find out they have less then half an hour till the trade off. The group all heads to one of the computer rooms to use the copy machines and get to work copying the pages that haven’t been translated yet. Xander wishes they had thought of this before but they were all too secure in the knowledge that they thought the books were safe. None of them had anticipated this, which was a huge lack of oversight.

\----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

The trade-off is going well, as they have Willow back and the mayor hasn’t tried to kill them, before Snyder busts in with a group of cops. One of Sunnydale’s finest opens the box and a hideous spider thing jumps out and kills the cop who opened the box. A few more escape in the commotion.

Xander is able to get close enough to the box to enact plan b and chucks a small bottle of oil and bag of herbs in, while the mayor is distracted by the spider thing attached to his face. A few whispered words and a huge flash of black flames appears before the box snaps shut. He isn’t sure if the flesh and bone eating fire will kill all of the disgusting creatures but he hopes it puts a big enough dent in them to mess up the mayors plans.

Buffy, Faith, and Angel kill the rest of the escaped ones and they find out from Mayor Wilkins that there are fifty billion more in the box. He gloats that when the lid shut that it would have suppressed the magical fire, to protect the spider things.

It was confirmed that Mayor Wilkins is likely invincible when the man’s wounds healed, almost instantly, from the spider attack and the mayor’s own statement about his invincibility.

After the mayor leaves and Snyder wishes they were dealing drugs like normal people, Giles questions Xander on what he used. “Look, G-man. You know I’m pretty responsible with the mojo stuff. The fire was from one of my darker grimoires but I thought it would be useful if we got the chance. The fire was used by the witch who wrote the grimoire to consume demons and humans she used in sacrifices; it consumes bones and flesh very quickly. I had hoped it would destroy those things in the box completely but we weren’t that lucky.”

Giles asks a few more question about the ingredients needed for the fire and the incantation before admitting it would be a very useful spell for disposing of demon carcasses that don’t dust or dissolve. Xander offers to bring a small case with a few jars of the strong smelling oil and bags of herbs, along with the incantation written down.

Willow is giving them all a play-by-play of her time with the mayor and what she learned from one of the demons who was working with Mayor Wilkins; the man founded the town with the specific purpose of sacrificing it’s citizens to demons. They already knew that Mayor Wilkins had founded the town but hadn’t been aware that he had done it for the sole purpose of feeding demons and as a part of his Ascension. She even killed one with a pencil using telekinesis magic, which deserves major points.

Wesley, who had finally woken up, complains they are back where they started and makes a snide comment about Buffy not leaving now; it just sets Xander off.

“Shut up!” Xander growls at the man before slamming him into a wall, using his arm across the man’s neck to hold him in place. “You have no right to say anything because you have no idea what we’ve been through and survived the last three years. You would have sacrificed Willow, just for a box of fucking spiders. We know more now, Willow just told us or were you not listening to the girl you were willing to let the mayor have. And you act like you own Buffy and Faith; like you have any right to tell them what they can or can’t do. They can leave here or go to college or anything else they want, you aren’t their master. Sorry to tell you but the Watcher’s Council needs them, a lot more then they need the Council. No slayers, means no watchers. So keep your useless, cowardly, mouth shut before I do something I won’t regret.”

“You should probably let him go now.” Giles voice is calm but firm. Xander slams the man against the wall once more before dropping him. It takes everything not to kick the weasel.

“Plus, we have Giles. Much better then the Council.” Buffy adds, as Wesley slides down the wall. Xander thinks that’s the truth. Wesley is nothing but a mouth piece for the Council and would likely sell the slayers out to save his own neck, where Giles would sacrifice himself to save his slayers. Wesley sees them as nothing more then replaceable weapons, just like the Council.

Xander checks once more that Willow is okay before pulling Angel out of the library behind him because if he has to be in Wesley’s presence much longer, he might just kill him.

\----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

It isn’t for another couple days that Xander hears about Buffy and Willow’s choice to go to UC Sunnydale together, though Xander isn’t sure that Buffy chose so much as gave in. Xander questions Willow’s choice to stay when she was accepted to every Ivy League school but her argument of wanting to help people and fight the evil on Hellmouth is hard to fight and she pulled out Resolve Face.

Though that doesn’t mean he thinks it’s the best plan and asks if she would be willing to go to another school for a short time, which she refuses. Xander thinks they should all have time away from the Hellmouth; at least for a short while, occasionally. There is no way that long term exposure to it’s influence doesn’t effect them negatively.

However, Giles and him are able to talk Willow into a month long retreat in San Francisco after graduation with the coven that Amy is part of and that Michael plans on joining. That way she will have some advanced magical training away from the Hellmouth and will be able to completely cleanse her aura of it’s malignant energies; which wasn’t easy when you lived there. After that they have her agree to have two weeks to a month each summer, away from Sunnydale.

Giles usually already leaves for a majority of the summer, to go back to England and visit family and friends. Oz has some gigs with his band that are away from Sunnydale and a couple out of state. Faith hadn’t really mentioned any plans but had looked relieved that Buffy had decided to stay in Sunnydale.

Joyce has plans to take Buffy for a month long vacation at the start of the summer and they will be visiting LA, to see Buffy’s dad, and then flying to New York. Joyce has a few exhibits to visit in New York for her gallery and the pair will be sightseeing and shopping. All of it is a surprise to Buffy, who has no clue. Giles encouraged Joyce to get them away from Sunnydale for at least a short while and has plans to meet them in LA to do a cleansing ritual on Buffy and Faith; who can be affected much like a magic user because of their slayer status.

This at least gets them all out of Sunnydale for a part of the summer. Xander is glad that he wont be coming back.

\----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

A couple days later, everyone is at the library and they are all discussing what they’ve found out about Mayor Wilkins and the Ascension. From the translated text of the Books of Ascension they have found out that the mayor plans to transform into a demon, not just any demon but a pure one, on the day of graduation.

Giles had a meeting with Professor Worth and found out that the fossil the man discovered was actually the buried carcass of the old one, Olvikan. The picture he shows them of it takes up three pages and it is a pure demon, who left the earth millennia ago with the rest of the old ones. Though the fact that the demon can be killed gives them hope, even if it took a volcano explosion the last time.

Willow mentions that the Mayor is scheduled to give the commencement speech at graduation, as she was able to get a look at his schedule while she was kidnapped. They all figure he plans to chow down on the hundred or so Sunnydale graduates and their family.

Xander worries that this will put Spike out of commission, as Angel would just reveal he is able to stand in the sun, but Wesley adds that there will be an eclipse due to the Ascension. Which they all realize could mean that vampires will be coming to the ‘party’, as they had already assumed the mayor would bring a variety of demon to deal with the large crowd.

They all try to figure out a plan to deal with the mayor, something that will be able to kill Olvikan, since they have to wait till after the Ascension is complete to kill the mayor. Xander reminds them of the Judge but when Buffy says a rocket launcher wont be big enough, he agrees and says that he can get explosives from the military base. That they might even be able to add some kind of magical component if they think they will need it.

Willow and Oz are designated to figure up exactly how much explosives they will need and Xander will be the one actually ‘acquiring’ most of the materials. They will have some time to acquire the explosives and get everything else prepared but they don’t get their hopes too high because the mayor is a much smarter opponent then they usually face.

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Xander hands an envelope to both Cordelia and Faith at the end of school, the day of prom. “Happy early graduation.”

“Holy shit, Xan! This is like a grand.” Faith exclaims once she opens the envelope and card.

“Yep. I figured if you ladies wanted to go shopping I could take you and I figured Cordy would want to stop by April Fools to pick up her dress.” He offers.

“Did you get another car already?” Cordelia asks as she tucks her envelope into her purse, while a big smile crosses Faith’s face.

Xander nods. “Yeah. This one is a couple years newer, so instead of a ‘97 it’s a ‘99. A Jeep Grand Cherokee Laredo Sport, grey this time. It actually looks a little different from my other one.” He hopes this one lasted longer then the last one.

“Damn, Xan. Your sugar daddy need another baby?” Faith teases as she hops into the back of the Jeep.

“Angel, isn’t my sugar daddy. I actually bought this with my own money.” Xander shakes his head at the thought of Angel being his sugar daddy.

“What?! Where’d you get this kind of cash?” The dark haired slayer proclaims.

“Well, there was close to a hundred grand we stole from Finch’s apartment and I kept half with the other half going to Giles. I figured he deserved it because he looks after you and Buffy, plus he was fired from the Council. Some comes from the vamps or other demons we kill, they don’t need it once they’re dead. Then, there is money I make from the demon fight club I go to sometimes with Spike. Last, the wards I put up for some of the demon community. I thought there would be more who already had them but most of those types of spells are secrets kept by a clan or species; so I’ve been kept busy putting up safety wards for a bunch of the demon population and it pays well.” Xander really did have quite a bit of cash sitting in a bank account; it felt nice that he didn’t have to rely completely on Angel’s money.

“Damn, boy. Though that does explain why Giles gave me and B a few hundred each awhile back and told us to come to him if we needed any new equipment or replacements for lost clothes.” There’s a barely there pause before Faith adds. “My old watcher told me the same thing and we would occasionally go to cleaned out crypts and take what was left behind but lately all we’ve been up against are a few vamps and demons with no pockets. And what’s this about a demon fight club because I need a way to actually make some regular cash.” Faith hardly ever talks about her last watcher but quickly moves on to the next subject; she sounds eager about the fight club.

Xander makes a noise, as he thinks about bringing Faith into a building full of demons. “Could probably take you, I’ll have to ask the demon who organizes it, but it isn’t something you can go to by yourself, Faith. There are a bunch of demons and a few would probably like to take out a slayer. The fights don’t have to be to the death but it’s up to the winner and there aren’t really any rules. If I show you, I really mean it when I say don’t go looking when you’re by yourself. Okay?”

“Jeeze, chill, Xan. It’s five by five. I pinky promise I won’t go looking by myself.” Faith rolls her eyes but at least seems to agree with him.

Then the two start talking about dresses; cuts and colors and a whole bunch of stuff that goes over Xander’s head.

They all get out, when they get to April Fools and Cordelia takes Faith to look for a dress and purchase her own. Xander browses a few of the tux options but Angel had already gotten them tailored tuxes from somewhere else. He really doesn’t care much for the prom but it will be nice to spend a night out with friends before they have to deal with the mayor at graduation. Angel had also reserved a private room at Soul Food for all of them, so they could eat there after the Prom; they were all a bunch of night owls.

While Faith and Cordelia are trying on their chosen dresses, the front glass of the shop implodes as some deformed and hairy _thing_ busts through it. It knocks Xander aside before going straight for another guy, knocking them over a chair and viciously attacking. Xander leaps at the thing and sinks his own claws into its back before pulling it off it’s victim and throwing it away. The demon leaps back at it’s victim, who is trying to scramble even more into the corner, instead of going for Xander.

Xander has to block it and then kicks it in the chest, knocking it back again, all the while trying to dodge it’s claws. After a few more hit’s the thing suddenly stops, turns around, and runs out of the shop. Xander yells for someone to call 911 before running after the demon, hoping to catch it before it escapes. He finally manages to catch up to it in an alley a few streets down and leaps at it.

He takes the demon down in a hard tackle and they go rolling down the alley but Xander wastes little time before clawing at the creature. It keeps trying to escape instead of fighting him but Xander is able to get his hands around the things head and snaps it’s neck. When he steps back, he is covered in both his own and the creature’s blood; his clothes are torn and dirty from the fight. The things claws had caught his side as they were rolling and he is losing a good bit of blood as the wound takes it’s sweet time to heal.

Faith comes running into the alley, having changed back into her own clothes. “Shit, you okay? What the hell was that thing?”

I’m fine and no idea, other then ugly. Let’s get back to the mansion, so I can clean up.” Xander throws the demon over his shoulder before dumping it into a large trash can behind a deli and heading back towards his car.

Cordelia is waiting next to the car but grabs his keys when he goes to unlock his Jeep. “I’ll drive. You look like you just went through a blender.”

Xander just grunts and climbs into the back, while reaching over the seat for something to hold against his side. The wound is mostly closed but still bleeding slightly. “Mansion and thanks for the appreciation for saving you from the ugly demon. I’m really feeling the love.”

“You’re a Scooby, saving people is kinda your thing.” Cordy shoots back.

When they make it to the mansion, Angel meets him at the door and Xander tells the girls to make themselves comfortable in the kitchen and that he’ll be back soon.

The teen tells Angel about the attack and what the creature looked like, as he is showering. The master vampire informs him that it was a hell hound, some foot soldier created for some demon war. Great, just what they needed.

When he is showered and dressed again, they head downstairs towards the kitchen. Xander figures they need to get to the library and inform Giles about what happened.

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Back at the library, with security footage in hand-courtesy of Cordelia, they show everyone else what happened. Xander had found out the kid who was attacked, was fine but needed some serious stitches.

Oz sees some kid, Tucker Wells, who he has a class with in the video and the boy has some remote that looks like it could be controlling the hellhound; as something needed to explain why the hellhound suddenly stopped attacking and left. Willow doesn’t waste any time breaking into Tucker’s email account and they find an email about his plans to attack the prom.

Giles believe the hellhounds have somehow been trained to attack those in formal wear and that Tucker will be letting them loose at prom. None of them are willing to let some boy and his deformed dogs stop them from having a nice night.

Buffy comes up with a plan and gives them all instructions before they split up; the blond slayer heading to the meat packing warehouse to check for any orders of brains. Xander heads to the magic shop to see if anyone bought supplies to summon a hellhound and motions Faith to go with Cordy and Wesley, who are heading to Tucker’s house. Willow and Oz go to find the guy Tucker was emailing.

A fruitless hour later, Xander is the first back at the library. Not much later, everyone but Buffy trails is with the same lack of results. When Buffy arrives, she has an address that a large order of cow brains is delivered too; which is pretty close to the school.

Buffy seems determined to do this all herself but Xander and Faith don’t see any reason she should have to handle it alone; they don’t know how many hellhounds there are and it will take less time with more muscle.

The three load up on weapons and Xander calls Angel to bring his tux to the school, the slayers already have their dresses there. He really hopes there aren’t a dozen of these things.

As they are about to enter the house, Xander hears a door opening and three heartbeats moving away quickly.

Xander quietly whispers. “I think he just let some out. There’s three moving away and only two heartbeats in the house, one of them Tucker’s. Faith and I will go after the ones heading to the school and you check out here, okay?”

Buffy nods before they split up. Faith and Xander run to catch up with the hellhounds before they get to the school. When they catch up to them, Faith is able to get one with her lever-action bow before the remain two turn around to attack them. Xander is actually surprised they are attacking because the previous one just kept trying to get away.

Faith pulls a long knife from her jacket and Xander lets his claws out before they face the two hellhound head one. Xander grapples his to the ground and manages to get behind it, then racks it’s throat with his claws; it falls limp in the grass as it bleeds out quickly. Faith is slashing at the other while dodging the hellhounds claws and teeth. Suddenly, the hellhound stops attacking and is about to turn around but the distraction allows Faith to stab it in the stomach and jerks the knife up; spilling it’s guts on the ground.

They’ve just started dragging the three dead hellhounds into the woods, when Buffy arrives. She had left Tucker tied up and shot the remaining hellhound with her crossbow.

This didn’t actually take too long and they all have plenty of time to get ready for the prom. Xander heads to the library, where he told Angel to meet him.

When he gets there, he lets out a groan at the sight of his mate. Angel is wearing black pants, waistcoat, and tux jacket with black silk lapels, along with a dark purple silk shirt and slate grey tie. Angel looks incredible and edible; exactly like a fallen angel that was sent to tempt someone to the wrong side. Xander wants to give him a kiss, and more, but refuses to muse his mate’s perfect appearance with bits of dirt and blood.

Xander quickly cleans up and changes into his own tux. Similar black pants, waistcoat, and jacket as Angel; with a slate grey shirt and a dark purple tie; Angel had decided to coordinate their suits slightly. When he takes a look in the mirror, he’s a little surprised how well he cleans up and how grown up he looks. He really did like the look of the waistcoat, though it wasn’t _that_ much different from a vest, much more then the cummerbunds he had seen.

The teen greets his mate with a kiss, when he gets back to the library from changing. Angel gladly accepts the kiss and pins a dark purple, almost black, rose to the jacket’s pocket.

“You look gorgeous, mo chroí .” (My heart.) Angel tells him, as they share a few more kisses.

“Thank you and you clean up pretty well yourself, mpenzi.” (Love.) Xander finally pulls out of his mate’s arms before tugging Angel along by the hand. He wants to show Angel off a little, who wouldn’t, though the majority of the upper classmen know who he’s with because they’ve seen them together at the Bronze. But the master vampire looks extra good in a tux.

Xander and Angel dance together most of the night, though they do share a few dances with the girls. Faith and Cordelia had already wrangled a dance each out of Xander, when the girls were looking at dresses earlier in the day. When Xander dances with Willow, he has to stop himself from smirking as he sees Oz dance with Angel; the height difference seems more noticeable when it’s a guy instead of a girl.

Once the prom winds down, the group all head out together to have dinner at Soul Food. It’s likely one of the few calm moments they will have till after graduation and none of them know how that will go. The mayor’s Ascension hangs over them but they do their best to put thoughts of it aside for the night and act like normal teenagers.

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A couple days after prom, Xander leads Faith to the location of the fight club for the evening; it was being held in one of the less used spots. He had already approved it with the coordinator and they had thought quite a few demons would be eager to test their mettle against a slayer. Angel and Spike are with them to provide backup, just in case.

Faith had been eager to come, she said she needed some action; Sunnydale had become strangely quiet. Her first two fights are quick and brutal, the vampire nothing but dust in the end and the other demon had to be carried out. Faith’s third fight is against Spike, who wanted to see what the slayer was made of.

The pair go back and forth for over ten minutes; Xander can see Spike testing Faith and looking for an opening, the ever watchful vampire taking in everything the slayer does. Where Faith is just taking any opening to wale on Spike, who has taken some hard hits but is healing quickly. Xander sees Faith slip up, eventually, and leave herself open when she attacks Spike.

The blond vampire is nothing more then a blur, as he slips under her guard and takes her down to the floor. Spike has her pinned and his teeth at her throat in seconds; the gathered demons all go still, wondering if Spike will take his third slayer this night. But the vampire whispers something in Faith’s ear before hoping up with a smirk plastered across his pale face.

Faith looks pissed but leaves the cage and shoves the cash the coordinator hands her in a pocket; she likely racked up a decent amount just from the two won fights. She joins Xander as Spike starts his next fight.

“Alright?” Xander asks the disgruntled slayer.

Faith huffs. “Five by Five. Didn’t expect him to win.”

“Well, he has taken two slayers in the last century. Spike likes the challenge.” Spike had told Xander all about the two fights he had been in with the slayers he had killed and how much he had loved the thrill of danger. Even how slayer blood was an aphrodisiac to the vampire but Xander figured he would spare Faith that detail.

Spike is in the ring for a few more fights before Xander has a couple turns. Xander’s second and last opponent of the night skewers him through the stomach, which is a horrible surprise. He’d had no idea the demon had bone skewers that shot out of it’s arms but he becomes very well acquainted with one; it is not an experience he every wishes to have again.

Xander’s spitting up blood as he breaks off the skewer and stabs the demon in the eye with it, his opponent is very dead after that and wont be skewering anyone else. Then he falls to the ground before Angel can make it into the cage; his vision has gone blurry and his stomach hurts…so bad.

Angel has a hand pressed to his stomach, trying to stop the flow of blood, before Spike tells his sire to put his blood into the wound and feed some to Xander. The skewered teen isn’t sure if the blood dropped onto his wound does any good but doesn’t waste any time biting into his mate’s offered wrist. He coughs some back up but it able to get a good bit down.

It takes a few minutes for the wound to start closing up and when it does Angel lifts him up and carries him out of the fight cage. The demons make a wide path for them, as none want to face an enraged master vampire when it’s mate is in danger.

“Well, I wasn’t expecting that.” Xander offers weakly as he lays limply in Angel’s arms.

By the time they make it back to the mansion and Xander is settled onto the bed, with a second helping of vampire blood, he is mostly healed; though the spot where the bone skewer went in is _very_ tender and still pink. The vampire blood had really sped up his healing, causing the wound to close a fair bit faster then it would have without it.

Angel settles in next to him and tucks an arm under Xander’s head but makes sure not to lay his other arm across the injured teen’s stomach. “Ta mo chroí istigh ionat. I would nae know what ta do if ya was taken from me.” (My heart is within you.) The vampire’s brogue is even thicker then normal because of his distress.

“You sentimental old man. I’m fine and a skewer to the stomach isn’t going to take me out, you know that. Even without your blood, this would have healed in a hour.” Xander tries to lighten the mood because the _distress_ is still coming across their mate bond, rather strongly. Angel’s mouthwatering scent is marred by worry and fear, which causes Xander’s nose to wrinkle.

The master vampire just growls at him and then leans forward and nips his chest in reprimand. “I’m fine, Angel. Already mostly healed up, just a little tender. Be good as new in no time.”

Angel just lays next to him and murmurs an Irish lullaby to lull him to sleep.

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Xander rubs his nose into the back of Angel’s neck, taking in the spicy licorice scent. He has no plans to get out of bed anytime soon, so settles in better for a long snuggle with his mate. Once he has his fill, he might laze by the pool for a few hours; nothing too strenuous because he needs to give his brain a rest.

Final are over and while there may be classes still going on till graduation, Xander has no intention of attending. He plans to laze about, at least when he isn’t stealing a crap ton of explosives from the military. He’s isn’t even worried about his grades because he knows he did well on his finals and maintained decent grades all year long.

He spends a few hours drifting in and out of consciousness but refuses to move till it becomes absolutely necessary. The bed is so nice and comfy, his mate is sleep warmed from Xander’s body heat, and their combined scent is perfectly mingled. Xander rarely gets to sleep in because of school and is ecstatic about finally being done with high school; now all he has to do is survive graduation and then it’s smooth sailing out of Sunnydale.

It can’t be much before noon when his stomach starts grumbling loudly and forces him from his comfortable bed. When he sleepily opens the fridge door, he thanks the gods for Zia because there are individually portioned containers of chicken cacciatore waiting for him. He chunks one into the microwave to heat it up before plopping down at the breakfast bar. Once he has filled the black hole that is his stomach, he contemplates the pros and cons of going back to bed or lazing in the pool.

Xander finally chooses to head back to bed because he has a night full of thieving to do, followed with helping to pack up the library; which they just started, not wanting to give themselves away too soon. What a strange life he leads.

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Graduation day dawns bright and warm; California weather hardly ever matches the occasional apocalyptic events. Though Xander isn’t really sure this is really apocalyptic level because any other time some idiot human has tried to Ascend, they’ve been stopped and Xander doubts that there was a group of Scoobies to stop each time; most often it was done by a natural disaster, so something is making sure old ones don’t roam the earth again. And even if they weren’t able to stop the mayor or their plan to blow him up didn’t work, there is a huge military with some serious firepower that would turn Olvikan into a crater. So at the most, Sunnydale would probably be destroyed and the rest of the world would be safe.

Xander eventually makes his way to the school, to double check that everything is set up properly in the library. They have the doors locked so students can’t just wander in because it is filled with C4 and bags of fertilizer. Xander had thought about adding a potion that acted like an acid but was worried it could vaporize and linger in the air, injuring students. Most of the school was going to be little more then rubble when this blew and they all hoped it was enough fire power to kill the Ascended mayor but not take them out, as well.

Buffy suggests gathering the graduates and giving them weapons, explaining what was going to happen. Xander agrees and shows them the box of simple leather necklaces with amethyst on them, he had made for the seniors.

“I’ve been working on these the past few days; did them in batches. There have a single simple protection charm on them, they don’t have a lot of magic so they wont last long.” Xander offers when he sees everyone looking at him. The entire group has their protection bracelets on; Xander, Michael, and Willow had finished those a couple weeks before and had even done Willow’s extra necklace.

He hoped that this would cut down on civilian causalities but doubted they would get through the day without someone from their graduating class dying. Xander even had his purple salve ready and a few healing spells memorized.

Xander, Willow, and Oz split up to spread the word to the graduating class and tell them where to pick up weapons. They had amassed a large supply of stakes, axes, some swords, and a few other goodies; Xander just hoped no one hurt themselves or someone else by accident.

This was going to be a long day.

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Much too soon, they are all marching out to their seats for the graduation ceremony; dressed in the maroon robes that Cordy was still bemoaning about. Like that was what they really needed to be worrying about.

Mayor Wilkins is hardly into his likely long speech, the man _is_ evil, the sky starts going dark because of the eclipse. Then suddenly the man morphs into this monstrous serpent that really proves Olvikan deserved a three page spread.

This causes the parents and families of the students, at least those who didn’t listen to the warnings their kids gave them, to panic and start to scatter. Some actually listened and are armed with crosses and water guns filled with holy water; they were commanded to keep the other adults together as much as they are able to and protect them from any attacking vampires.

Buffy sounds the call and the few flame throwers they managed to get a hold of are aimed at the snake monster the mayor turned into, pushing it back. While Xander leads some other students to attack with spear guns, Oz has the students at the back readying flaming arrows to hit the approaching vampires with. Xander imagines the group is smaller then it was originally because Spike had commanded a group of half-demons, that were loyal to Angel, to stand guard near some of the closest sewer tunnel entrances and kill anything that came out.

The remaining vampires turn to flee but are faced with Angel, Spike, Wesley, and another group of half-demons that volunteered to help. Xander had come up with the idea a few days before and had put a quiet word out; he chose the most human looking ones that were also stronger then average because he thought it would be easier to not mix them up with the bad guys.

Buffy calls for them to fall back and Xander tells the students to prepare for close combat, though there are only a few vampires left. Xander leads the charge, taking down two vamp that had ganged up on one of the half-demons. Angel and Spike are viciously tearing through any vampires they come across and causing most to try to run from them.

These vampires have betrayed Angel as the Master of Sunnydale, likely thinking that the mayor would soon be the much bigger player and then they would no longer be policed on what they could eat. It is probably why the mayor was able to amass so many vampires and they were only brave enough to go against Angel because they assumed that he would be defeated by the Ascended Mayor Wilkins.

Xander can hear the serpent thing screech and plow through some pillars, the slayers must have gained it’s attention. He hopes that they are able to outrun it and get the mayor into position in the library.

The fighting is dying off around him but the crowd is a mass of students in fight or flight mode. Xander manages to get up high and yell out. “Everyone please move off campus, calmly! Don’t trample anyone!”

The mass of students continues to push forward but at a less frantic pace and Xander signals for Angel and Spike to come help him find any injured students. They spread out and Xander comes across Larry who is alive but can’t move; he contemplates his options for a second, then makes a decision he hopes he wont regret, before uttering the bone mending spell he knows and winces when the boy yells out in pain. Then Xander lifts him up and carries him away from the school, setting him down a safe distance away.

Angel is carrying another girl who has blood on her throat from a bite but is alive. Spike is checking for any dead students because they will need to be staked so they wont rise if the attacking vampires gave them any blood. Oz joins them and helps; finding a student who has a broken arm and large gash across his back that was knocked out. Xander is able to mend the bone and puts some of his salve onto the gash, the boy is able to walk away on his own power.

The school suddenly goes up in a blaze that has everyone yelling and ducking. Xander is sure that it was enough to take care of the Ascended mayor, as part of the school collapses in a fiery explosion.

When everything is done and the ambulances and fire trucks have arrived, Xander realizes they only lost a few students and that’s pretty amazing for what just happened.

Buffy join the rest of them as they are all sitting around a bench watching the fire be put out by the firefighters. Xander can’t help but huff at Oz’s comment about them surviving high school; that isn’t an easy thing when your school is sitting on a Hellmouth.

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Xander gets ready to head out with Angel for their road trip, only a couple days after graduation. The pair only pack clothes, a few weapons, and two cooler; one for food and drinks and another for blood bags. The teen is very excited for the two month long vacation and can’t wait to get on the road. Xander and Angel had argued some about which vehicle to take because the vampire liked his convertible but Xander knew the Jeep would be much more comfortable for the long drive; thankfully he won that little disagreement.

Angel has already officially turned Sunnydale over to Spike, who has decided to hang around for awhile longer and doesn’t want to let the necro-tinted glassed mansion, go to waste. The blond vampire loved the necro-glass in the mansion and his car; the ability to feel sun on his skin again and his movements were less limited during the daylight with the car. Angel had necro-tinted glass put in all of their vehicles and had the new Jeep done days after Xander had bought it.

They won’t pack up the stuff they plan to keep from the mansion till they get back but the pair have plans to stop in LA at the beginning of their road trip to look at a couple pieces of real estate, even if they don’t find a place for the long-term. Zia and Vey will be moving with them and were actually already in LA visiting family, while on vacation. Ace was still at the mansion because Spike had been persistent about the cat staying with him, at least till their actual move.

Xander had spoken to Cordy and Faith already and the pair were moving into a small two bedroom apartment not too far from USC campus in late July. Cordy had taken him up on his offer of paying for college and she had been able to get assistance for close to half of the first year’s tuition. She hadn’t chosen a major but planned to get her general classes out of the way then take a few from each interest to see what she liked best; seemed like a good idea to Xander.

Xander had given the same offer to Faith but she had declined, not really interested in more school. Actually, once Angel and Xander moved to LA, they would be employing Faith as a slayer if they needed her. Faith hadn’t told anyone but Cordy or Xander, and though him Angel, that she wasn’t coming back to Sunnydale but no one had really asked her. Willow did tend to treat Faith like a second Buffy or spare slayer, instead of her own person. Giles had likely assumed she would stay because that was where he and Buffy would be.

He had tried hard not to be pleased when he heard from Cordelia that Wesley would be going back to England, especially as Buffy had ‘fired’ the Council for some reason; likely she was just tired of the man acting like her master. The icing on the cake had been when Cordy admitted to an extremely awkward kiss between the two that showed there was no chemistry; which was the reason she wasn’t more upset that Wesley was leaving. Xander was smart enough to keep all his comments on the subject to himself; mostly because Cordy already called him possessive of those he saw as his or as he said, those he saw as ‘pack’.

Xander had only talked to Willow for a short time before she left for her retreat and was sad to realize she wasn’t his best friend any longer; the oldest but not best. He wasn’t sure who was now, he was pretty good friends with Cordy, Spike, Oz, and even Faith; all more so then Willow. If he was a sappy type he would say Angel but the vampire was his mate, which was so much _more_ then a friend could ever be.

He had spoken to Oz shortly as well but the musician had a gig with Dingoes Ate My Baby outside of Sunnydale for the weekend and had to leave the day before. They had both looked at their travel schedule and matched up the nights of the full moon, so Oz wouldn’t have to go through a change alone. Since he had started wearing the grounding onyx stones, Oz had kept better control during the full moons. The werewolf had been keeping most of his memories of full moon nights for a good while but had very little control over his actions, as he was mostly ruled by his animal instincts. The grounding stones helped him keep a good bit more control but he wasn’t completely free of the animal instincts and Xander warned him against denying them too much.

Xander figured he would talk to everyone else before he left for LA in a permanent sense, though they would be close enough to call for emergencies and regular visits. He had a few goodies to leave with them but there was no rush and he was more then ready to get on the road.

The teen grinned as they finishing packing the Jeep and hopped in the passenger seat, since Angel seemed determined to do most of the driving. This would be an incredibly fun two months, just him and his mate traveling across the US. They planned to make it all the way to New York before heading back but only had a basic itinerary because their plans could easily change as they traveled.

Xander smiled softly at Angel as they passed the ‘Leaving Sunnydale’ sign and entwined their fingers together. It felt good to be getting away from the Hellmouth and for some reason if felt like they were truly starting their life together now; maybe because he had finished high school and was considered an adult now, at least in the strictest sense.

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**Author's Note:**

> *Please check comments as I have a tiny what-if and also some questions I would like to hear from readers about. I have a few ideas for the direction of the other stories but would like some input from the readers.


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